How long did the Seia fire last?

Copernicus dates it between 6 September 2025 and 6 September 2025: 1 day between the first and last image with fire. According to ICNF, it was detected on 6 September 2025 at 10:29 and declared extinguished on 7 September 2025.

How much area did it burn?

The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 1,937 hectares (19.4 km²). Official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire entered 9 municipalities: Torrozelo e Folhadosa (596 ha, 58 %); Vila Cova-à-Coelheira (417 ha, 54 %); Sandomil (333 ha, 25 %); Carragozela e Várzea de Meruge (257 ha, 26 %); Valezim (145 ha, 12 %); União das Freguesias de Seia, São Romão e Lapa dos Dinheiros (95 ha, 1.8 %); Santiago (46 ha, 6.3 %); Sazes da Beira (43 ha, 5.6 %); Sameice e Santa Eulália (8 ha, 0.6 %).

Did the fire reach a town?

The fire started in Torrozelo e Folhadosa and reached its centre: the point marking it was inside the burnt area or less than 500 metres from it. That does not mean houses burned.

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 30.4 °C, humidity dropped to 27 % and gusts hit 46 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 40, class Very high.

Where does this data come from?

From the EFFIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Portugal (geoBoundaries). It is not an official report.

PT · Portugal · 2025-09-06 → 2025-09-06

Seia fire, September 2025 Torrozelo e Folhadosa, Vila Cova-à-Coelheira, Sandomil

Out · last measured on 6 Sept 2025

The fire started on 6 September 2025 in Torrozelo e Folhadosa, Portugal, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 1,937 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 9 municipalities. According to ICNF, it was detected on 6 September 2025 at 10:29 and declared extinguished on 7 September 2025.

Number 18 in Portugal in 2025, of 85.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Pombeiro da Beira · 2017 Seia · 2017 Serra da Estrela · 2022 Pampilhosa da Serra · 2017

We have the Copernicus perimeter for this fire, but not yet its hotspots: NASA publishes the yearly hotspot archive only once the year closes. The page picks it up automatically when it is available.

Burnt area: 1,937ha; Copernicus perimeter
Duration: 1day; 6 Sept 2025 – 6 Sept 2025
Municipalities hit: 9; freguesias
Started on: 6 Sept; 2025
Danger at start: 40; Very high · FWI index
Natura 2000: 43%; of the perimeter is protected land

The weather it burned in

30°high

46km/h · peak gust

27%lowest humidity

It had gone 5 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 6.6 mm on 7 Sept.

This area had burned before

37% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 713 ha in 2017.

713 ha Pombeiro da Beira fire, October 2017 132,830 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire

How big is it?

It burned the equivalent of 1.2% of the area of London (19 km² against 1,583 km²).

London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).

This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.

What happened to each town

Torrozelo e Folhadosa 708 inhabitants · fire reached the centre where it started

596 ha

58 %
Vila Cova-à-Coelheira fire reached the centre

417 ha

54 %
Sandomil 745 inhabitants · fire reached the centre

333 ha

25 %
Carragozela e Várzea de Meruge 548 inhabitants · 3.1 km from the centre

257 ha

26 %
Valezim 243 inhabitants · fire reached the centre

145 ha

12 %
União das Freguesias de Seia, São Romão e Lapa dos Dinheiros

95 ha

1.8 %
Santiago 1,164 inhabitants · 1.5 km from the centre

46 ha

6.3 %
Sazes da Beira 245 inhabitants · 0.5 km from the centre

43 ha

5.6 %
Sameice e Santa Eulália 508 inhabitants · 3.0 km from the centre

8 ha

0.6 %

Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the official perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance runs from the point marking the centre of each area to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.

What burned

Scrub and transitional woodland57 %
Agricultural areas17 %
Coniferous forest13 %
Mixed forest11 %
Artificial surfaces1.8 %

Natura 2000 protected area affected: 43 %

LIC Serra da Estrela PTCON0014

Natura 2000 sites (European Environment Agency, 2024 release) crossed by the perimeter.

Land cover inside the perimeter according to Corine Land Cover, as reported by Copernicus.

People and buildings inside the perimeter

GHSL 2025

Built-up area17 ha

Residents≈ 450

Inside the perimeter there were about 17 hectares of built-up land and about 450 residents (GHSL 2025, satellite-based estimate).

This is an estimate on 100 m cells, made from satellite imagery and census data: it does not mean that homes burned or that anyone was harmed. The perimeter also contains land that never burned. The GHSL 2025 epoch is a projection made from 2020 and earlier data.

Source: Global Human Settlement Layer (GHS-BUILT-S and GHS-POP R2023A), European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC), © European Union, CC BY 4.0. Sum inside the perimeter computed by WorldFires. human-settlement.emergency.copernicus.eu

Official record

According to ICNF, this fire started on 6 September 2025 and burned 1,846 ha (the satellite measured 1,937 ha).

Seia Sandomil 6 September 2025 · 10:29 1,846 ha · extinguished on 7 September 2025 · cause: arson

ICNF (Instituto da Conservação da Natureza e das Florestas). This is the agency’s operational record: its figures may be revised when the year’s statistics are closed.

The weather day by day

ECMWF ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, the standard reference for past weather, and the Canadian Fire Weather Index (the same system Copernicus uses), computed by WorldFires from that data. Days after the fire run until the first rain.

Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Climate Change Service (ERA5)

Day	High	Min. humidity	Peak gust	Rain	Danger (FWI)
6 Sept	30.4 °C	27 %	46 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40
7 Sept after	22.2 °C	64 %	50 km/h	6.6 mm	Very low 5

Before and after, from space

Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.

↔

Before · 30 Aug 2025

After · 13 Sept 2025

Before After

If the day is cloudy, change the date: each satellite passes once a day. In false colour the burnt ground looks brown or red.

The smoke

CAMS · Copernicus

On 8 September 2025 the air beside the fire reached 11 µg/m³ of PM2.5, but no daily average passed the WHO guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak11 µg/m³

Days over the guideline0 days

PM1014 µg/m³

Optical depth0.18

456789

Good Fair Moderate Poor Very poor Extremely poor

Particles from the Copernicus CAMS model at the centre of the perimeter; these are not measurements in each town. The pale bar is the worst hour, the solid one the daily average.

Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS)

Other fires nearby

All fires in Portugal ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Seia fire last?: Copernicus dates it between 6 September 2025 and 6 September 2025: 1 day between the first and last image with fire. According to ICNF, it was detected on 6 September 2025 at 10:29 and declared extinguished on 7 September 2025.
How much area did it burn?: The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 1,937 hectares (19.4 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire entered 9 municipalities: Torrozelo e Folhadosa (596 ha, 58 %); Vila Cova-à-Coelheira (417 ha, 54 %); Sandomil (333 ha, 25 %); Carragozela e Várzea de Meruge (257 ha, 26 %); Valezim (145 ha, 12 %); União das Freguesias de Seia, São Romão e Lapa dos Dinheiros (95 ha, 1.8 %); Santiago (46 ha, 6.3 %); Sazes da Beira (43 ha, 5.6 %); Sameice e Santa Eulália (8 ha, 0.6 %).
Did the fire reach a town?: The fire started in Torrozelo e Folhadosa and reached its centre: the point marking it was inside the burnt area or less than 500 metres from it. That does not mean houses burned.
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 30.4 °C, humidity dropped to 27 % and gusts hit 46 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 40, class Very high.
Where does this data come from?: From the EFFIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Portugal (geoBoundaries). It is not an official report.

Where to verify it

A satellite detection is not an official report. Final figures and the fire’s status are published by each country’s emergency service.

Emergency number: 112 · Emergency number and official warnings ›

Satellite cross-check

NASA FIRMS ↗
EFFIS · Copernicus ↗

History of this page Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.

No changes since 24 October 2026.

RSS Changes to this page

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This page is built from satellite data and official records, and it sometimes gets things wrong: the wrong dates, the wrong town, two fires merged into one, or something that was not a wildfire at all. If you know this fire first-hand (you live nearby, saw it, fought it or reported on it), tell us what really happened and we will check it.

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What really happened?

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We will only use your email to reply about this report. Privacy. This is not an emergency service: if there is a fire now, call 112.

How we know this

Perimeter: EFFIS (Copernicus), mapped on satellite imagery.
Dates from the perimeter: the VIIRS detections inside it did not change them. No Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
Compared with ICNF: 1,846 official ha against 1,937 ha of perimeter; they agree within 25%.
Weather: Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, in cells of about 25 km.
Built-up area and population come from the JRC Global Human Settlement Layer (epoch 2025, 100 m cells), summed inside the perimeter: an estimate of what was there, not a damage count.

How we build fire pages: methodology ›

Where this data comes from

The perimeter and land cover come from the Copernicus European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS), measured on MODIS and Sentinel-2 imagery and published under CC BY 4.0. Heat detections come from the VIIRS sensors aboard Suomi-NPP and NOAA-20, distributed by NASA FIRMS at 375 m resolution. Municipal boundaries come from geoBoundaries ADM3 (CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication). The area per municipality is computed by WorldFires by crossing the perimeter with those boundaries, so it may differ slightly from each country’s official figure.

Where it burned