Sernancelhe fire, September 2017 Escurquela e Fonte Arcada, Ferreirim e Macieira
The fire started on 16 September 2017 in Escurquela e Fonte Arcada, Portugal, and satellites saw it burning for 2 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 289 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 2 municipalities. According to ICNF, it was detected on 16 September 2017 at 12:26 and declared extinguished on 16 September 2017.
Number 121 in Portugal in 2017, of 210.
- Burnt area
- 289ha
- Copernicus perimeter
- Duration
- 2days
- 16 Sept 2017 – 17 Sept 2017
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- freguesias
- Started on
- 16 Sept
- 2017
- Heat detections
- 15
- in a single hotspot: 155 MW
- Danger at start
- 20
- Moderate · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 488MW
- detected power per day, on average
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 16 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.
What happened to each town
-
175 ha reached on 16 Sept8.8 %
-
Ferreirim e Macieira 614 inhabitants · 1.5 km from the town114 ha reached on 16 Sept5.1 %
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
- Other natural land90 %
- Agricultural areas9.3 %
- Scrub and transitional woodland0.7 %
Land cover inside the perimeter according to Corine Land Cover, as reported by Copernicus.
Official record
According to ICNF, this fire started on 16 September 2017 and burned 235 ha (the satellite measured 289 ha).
- Sernancelhe Macieira 16 September 2017 · 12:26 235 ha · extinguished on 16 September 2017 · cause: negligence
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 16 Sept | 18.2 °C | 32 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 17 Sept | 19.2 °C | 37 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 18 Sept after | 20.0 °C | 47 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 18 |
| 19 Sept after | 22.4 °C | 38 % | 19 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 16 |
| 20 Sept after | 25.2 °C | 29 % | 21 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 21 Sept after | 21.3 °C | 48 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 22 Sept after | 23.2 °C | 34 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 19 |
| 23 Sept after | 24.1 °C | 28 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 24 Sept after | 24.4 °C | 19 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 25 Sept after | 21.5 °C | 36 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 26 Sept after | 23.0 °C | 31 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 27 Sept after | 25.0 °C | 30 % | 17 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 23 |
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 16 September 2017 the air beside the fire reached 13 µg/m³ of PM2.5, but no daily average passed the WHO 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 · 15Every 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 Trancoso (São Pedro e Santa Maria) e Souto MaiorAugust 2025 · 10 days · 13 km away
- 4,809 haFornos de Algodres Aldeia NovaOctober 2017 · 2 days · 27 km away
- 3,389 haCarrazeda de Ansiães LinharesJuly 2022 · 6 days · 27 km away
- 3,403 haTorre de Moncorvo Vilarinho da CastanheiraAugust 2026 · 1 day · 34 km away
- 3,233 haTorre de Moncorvo Cabeça BoaJune 2017 · 2 days · 38 km away
- 5,597 haAlijó Vila ChãJuly 2017 · 3 days · 39 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Sernancelhe fire last?
- Copernicus dates it between 16 September 2017 and 17 September 2017: 2 days between the first and last image with fire. According to ICNF, it was detected on 16 September 2017 at 12:26 and declared extinguished on 16 September 2017.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 289 hectares (2.9 km²). Official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Escurquela e Fonte Arcada (175 ha, 8.8 %); Ferreirim e Macieira (114 ha, 5.1 %).
- Did the fire reach a town?
- The closest fire to a town centre came within 0.8 km of Escurquela e Fonte Arcada. 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 19.2 °C, humidity dropped to 32 % and gusts hit 34 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 21, class Moderate.
- 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.