Valdreu fire, August 2016 Azias, Valdreu
The fire started on 11 August 2016 in Valdreu, Portugal, and satellites saw it burning for 5 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 185 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 4th largest in Vila Verde since 2016 (of 14 with a page). Number 117 in Portugal in 2016, of 180.
The power measured by the satellite is low (17.2 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.
Compare with…
- Burnt area
- 185ha
- Copernicus perimeter
- Duration
- 5days
- 11 Aug 2016 – 15 Aug 2016
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- freguesias
- Started on
- 11 Aug
- 2016
- Heat detections
- 22
- in a single hotspot: 17 MW
- Danger at start
- 40
- Very high · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 57MW
- 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 6 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.0 mm on 17 Aug.
This area had burned before
No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.
What happened to each town
-
Azias 303 inhabitants · fire reached the centre133 ha reached on 11 Aug16 %
-
53 ha reached on 11 Aug2.9 %
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
- Other natural land85 %
- Scrub and transitional woodland10 %
- Agricultural areas5.3 %
Natura 2000 protected area affected: 21 %
- LIC Peneda / Gerês PTCON0001
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 2015Inside the perimeter there were about 0.15 hectares of built-up land and almost nobody lived there (GHSL 2015, 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.
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
Several official records match this area
According to ICNF, 2 fires started inside this perimeter on these dates, totalling 293 ha (the satellite measured 185 ha). The two figures differ a lot, so these may not be exactly the same fire: take them as nearby records.
ICNF records each fire that started at a different time or place separately; the satellite sees a single burned area, so this page groups them together. The numbers on the map show where each one started.
- 1 Vila Verde Valdreu 11 August 2016 · 14:33 52 ha · extinguished on 11 August 2016 · cause: arson
- 2 Ponte da Barca Azias 12 August 2016 · 11:03 241 ha · extinguished on 12 August 2016 · cause: rekindling
Total according to ICNF: 293 ha, 158 % of the 185 ha in the satellite perimeter.
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 11 Aug | 28.3 °C | 21 % | 47 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 12 Aug | 29.5 °C | 24 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 13 Aug | 28.2 °C | 24 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 14 Aug | 27.7 °C | 33 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 15 Aug | 26.0 °C | 44 % | 31 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 27 |
| 16 Aug after | 22.6 °C | 43 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 17 Aug after | 21.7 °C | 64 % | 36 km/h | 1.0 mm | Moderate 11 |
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.
Detections table · 22Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 7,225 haPonte da Barca Entre Ambos-os-Rios, Ermida e GermilJuly 2025 · 11 days · 9 km away
- 6,662 haArcos de Valdevez Soajo8 August 2016 · 9 days · 14 km away
- 3,074 haEntrimoSeptember 2016 · 7 days · 22 km away
- 9,224 haCabração e Moreira do LimaAugust 2016 · 5 days · 29 km away
- 3,893 haMonção MerufeOctober 2017 · 2 days · 30 km away
- 3,240 haMuíñosOctober 2017 · 2 days · 32 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Valdreu fire last?
- According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 11 August 2016 to 15 August 2016 (5 days). The perimeter dates it from 11 August 2016 to 12 August 2016.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 185 hectares (1.8 km²). Official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Azias (133 ha, 16 %); Valdreu (53 ha, 2.9 %).
- Did the fire reach a town?
- The fire reached the centre of Azias: 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 29.5 °C, humidity dropped to 21 % and gusts hit 47 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 ›
- ICNF · Instituto da Conservação da Natureza e das Florestas ↗
- ANEPC · Proteção Civil ↗
- Fogos.pt (ocorrências em tempo real) ↗
Satellite cross-check
History of this page · 1 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
- Last day with fire: 12 August 2016 → 15 August 2016.
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
How we know this
- Perimeter: EFFIS (Copernicus), mapped on satellite imagery.
- Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 11 August 2016 to 12 August 2016. 22 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
- Compared with ICNF: 293 official ha against 185 ha of perimeter; similar, but with reservations.
- 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 2015, 100 m cells), summed inside the perimeter: an estimate of what was there, not a damage count.
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.