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Sertã fire, 23 July 2017 Envendos, Proença a Nova e Peral, Carvoeiro

Out · last detection 28 Jul 2017, 14:18 UTC

The fire started on 23 July 2017 in São Pedro do Esteval, Portugal, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 36,849 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 13 municipalities. According to ICNF, the largest of the 2 recorded fires was detected on 23 July 2017 at 13:47 and declared extinguished on 28 July 2017.

Number 3 in Portugal in 2017, of 210.

Burnt area
36,849ha
Copernicus perimeter
Duration
6days
23 Jul 2017 – 28 Jul 2017
Municipalities hit
13
freguesias
Started on
23 Jul
2017
Heat detections
1,269
in a single hotspot: 342 MW
Danger at start
47
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
20.2GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

28 Jul 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 23 Jul28 Jul

How it evolved, day by day

232425262728

Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.

The weather it burned in

36°high
50km/h · peak gust
15%lowest humidity

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

  1. Envendos 804 inhabitants · 0.0 km from the town
    9,083 ha reached on 25 Jul
    99 %
  2. Proença a Nova e Peral 4,498 inhabitants · 1.2 km from the town
    6,112 ha reached on 24 Jul
    36 %
  3. Carvoeiro 519 inhabitants · 0.0 km from the town
    4,779 ha reached on 25 Jul
    98 %
  4. Belver 560 inhabitants · 1.2 km from the town
    4,584 ha reached on 24 Jul
    66 %
  5. Arez e Amieira do Tejo 393 inhabitants · 1.8 km from the town
    3,760 ha reached on 27 Jul
    24 %
  6. Mação, Penhascoso e Aboboreira 3,193 inhabitants · 3.2 km from the town
    2,714 ha reached on 25 Jul
    20 %
  7. Cardigos 965 inhabitants · 4.3 km from the town
    1,618 ha reached on 24 Jul
    23 %
  8. São Pedro do Esteval 406 inhabitants · 1.5 km from the town
    1,517 ha reached on 25 Jul
    22 %
  9. Várzea dos Cavaleiros 627 inhabitants · 0.0 km from the town where it started
    1,130 ha reached on 23 Jul
    33 %
  10. São Matias 197 inhabitants · 1.5 km from the town
    823 ha reached on 28 Jul
    15 %
  11. Fratel 500 inhabitants · 5.9 km from the town
    594 ha reached on 25 Jul
    6.0 %
  12. Espírito Santo, Nossa Senhora da Graça e São Simão 2,997 inhabitants · 6.1 km from the town
    109 ha
    0.7 %
  13. Amêndoa 387 inhabitants · 7.6 km from the town
    71 ha reached on 25 Jul
    1.9 %

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 woodland49 %
  • Agricultural areas20 %
  • Coniferous forest12 %
  • Broadleaved forest10 %
  • Mixed forest5.1 %
  • Other natural land2.2 %
  • Sclerophyllous scrub1.9 %

Natura 2000 protected area affected: 7 %

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.

Official record

According to ICNF, 2 fires started inside this perimeter on these dates, totalling 34,898 ha (the satellite measured 36,849 ha).

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.

Checked against the press

Checked on 29 September 2026

We checked this page against 4 sources published once the fire was out. This is what they add:

Also known as
Fogo de Mação 2017 · Incêndio da Sertã, Proença-a-Nova e Mação · Incêndio de Mosteiro (Sertã)
Declared under control (not yet extinguished): 27 July 2017

Sources

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)
23 Jul 32.9 °C 24 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
24 Jul 32.9 °C 27 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
25 Jul 35.7 °C 18 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
26 Jul 36.2 °C 19 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
27 Jul 35.5 °C 15 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
28 Jul 34.8 °C 24 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
29 Jul after 35.5 °C 22 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
30 Jul after 31.7 °C 25 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
31 Jul after 26.6 °C 31 % 41 km/h 0.9 mm High 30
1 Aug after 28.5 °C 24 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
2 Aug after 32.6 °C 20 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
3 Aug after 34.3 °C 27 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
4 Aug after 37.2 °C 25 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
5 Aug after 34.5 °C 27 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
6 Aug after 34.8 °C 22 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
7 Aug after 29.6 °C 26 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 16 Jul 2017
After · 4 Aug 2017

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 25 July 2017 the air beside the fire reached 186 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 95: 6.3 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak186 µg/m³
Days over the guideline5 days
PM10232 µg/m³
2122232425262728293031
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)

Detections table · 1,269Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
⬇ Download CSV Times in UTC. Each detection is a 375 m pixel: a large fire yields hundreds per pass.
Date and timeSatelliteFRP (MW)LatLon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Portugal ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Sertã fire last?
Copernicus dates it between 23 July 2017 and 28 July 2017: 6 days between the first and last image with fire. According to ICNF, the largest of the 2 recorded fires was detected on 23 July 2017 at 13:47 and declared extinguished on 28 July 2017.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 36,849 hectares (368.5 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 13 municipalities: Envendos (9,083 ha, 99 %); Proença a Nova e Peral (6,112 ha, 36 %); Carvoeiro (4,779 ha, 98 %); Belver (4,584 ha, 66 %); Arez e Amieira do Tejo (3,760 ha, 24 %); Mação, Penhascoso e Aboboreira (2,714 ha, 20 %); Cardigos (1,618 ha, 23 %); São Pedro do Esteval (1,517 ha, 22 %); Várzea dos Cavaleiros (1,130 ha, 33 %); São Matias (823 ha, 15 %); Fratel (594 ha, 6.0 %); Espírito Santo, Nossa Senhora da Graça e São Simão (109 ha, 0.7 %).
Did the fire reach a town?
The closest fire to a town centre came within 0.0 km of Envendos. 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 36.2 °C, humidity dropped to 15 % and gusts hit 50 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 54, class Extreme.
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

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
What do you think is wrong?

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.

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.