Sernancelhe fire, August 2017 Beselga, Penedono e Granja, Chosendo
The fire started on 27 August 2017 in Beselga, Portugal, and satellites saw it burning for 2 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 1,164 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 5 municipalities. According to ICNF, it was detected on 27 August 2017 at 10:02 and declared extinguished on 27 August 2017.
Number 49 in Portugal in 2017, of 210.
The power measured by the satellite is low (14.4 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.
- Burnt area
- 1,164ha
- Copernicus perimeter
- Duration
- 2days
- 27 Aug 2017 – 28 Aug 2017
- Municipalities hit
- 5
- freguesias
- Started on
- 27 Aug
- 2017
- Heat detections
- 5
- in a single hotspot: 14 MW
- Danger at start
- 6
- Low · FWI index
- Energy released
- 19MW
- sum of detected power
Where it burned
How it evolved, day by day
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
It had gone 0 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 10.2 mm on 29 Aug.
This area had burned before
No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.
What happened to each town
-
Beselga 270 inhabitants · 0.8 km from the town506 ha reached on 28 Aug34 %
-
Penedono e Granja 1,109 inhabitants · 2.2 km from the town400 ha reached on 28 Aug12 %
-
173 ha reached on 27 Aug15 %
-
Castainço 128 inhabitants · 2.0 km from the town84 ha6.3 %
-
Sernancelhe e Sarzeda 1,755 inhabitants · 5.8 km from the town3 ha0.1 %
Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the official perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance is from the town centre to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.
What burned
- Scrub and transitional woodland47 %
- Agricultural areas34 %
- Other natural land16 %
- Coniferous forest3.3 %
Land cover inside the perimeter according to Corine Land Cover, as reported by Copernicus.
Official record
According to ICNF, this fire started on 27 August 2017 and burned 1,117 ha (the satellite measured 1,164 ha).
- Sernancelhe Sarzeda 27 August 2017 · 10:02 1,117 ha · extinguished on 27 August 2017 · 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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 27 Aug | 23.6 °C | 41 % | 51 km/h | 7.5 mm | Low 6 |
| 28 Aug | 22.2 °C | 41 % | 34 km/h | 5.8 mm | Very low 3 |
| 29 Aug after | 20.6 °C | 59 % | 27 km/h | 10.2 mm | Very low 0 |
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
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 · CopernicusOn 27 August 2017 the air beside the fire reached 33 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 16: 1.1 times the WHO daily guideline (15).
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)
Detections table · 5Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 78,447 haTrancoso LeomilAugust 2025 · 10 days · 19 km away
- 3,389 haCarrazeda de Ansiães LinharesJuly 2022 · 6 days · 25 km away
- 4,809 haFornos de Algodres QueirizOctober 2017 · 2 days · 26 km away
- 3,403 haTorre de Moncorvo Vilarinho da CastanheiraAugust 2026 · 1 day · 30 km away
- 9,523 haGuarda FreixedasAugust 2025 · 3 days · 36 km away
- 5,597 haAlijó União das Freguesias de Carlão e AmieiroJuly 2017 · 3 days · 40 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Sernancelhe fire last?
- Copernicus dates it between 27 August 2017 and 28 August 2017: 2 days between the first and last image with fire. According to ICNF, it was detected on 27 August 2017 at 10:02 and declared extinguished on 27 August 2017.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 1,164 hectares (11.6 km²). Official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 5 municipalities: Beselga (506 ha, 34 %); Penedono e Granja (400 ha, 12 %); Chosendo (173 ha, 15 %); Castainço (84 ha, 6.3 %); Sernancelhe e Sarzeda (3 ha, 0.1 %).
- Did the fire reach a town?
- The closest fire to a town centre came within 0.8 km of Beselga. That is the distance to the perimeter or nearest hotspot; it does not mean it entered the houses.
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 23.6 °C, humidity dropped to 41 % and gusts hit 51 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 6, class Low.
- 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
- ICNF · Instituto da Conservação da Natureza e das Florestas ↗
- ANEPC · Proteção Civil ↗
- Fogos.pt (ocorrências em tempo real) ↗
Satellite cross-check
Does something look wrong on this page?
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.
Report an error
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.