Valença fire, October 2017 Ganfei, Gondomil e Safins, Verdoejo
The fire started on 15 October 2017 in Ganfei, Portugal, and satellites saw it burning for 2 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 347 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 3 municipalities. According to ICNF, it was detected on 15 October 2017 at 13:28 and declared extinguished on 16 October 2017.
Number 110 in Portugal in 2017, of 210.
Compare with…
- Burnt area
- 347ha
- Copernicus perimeter
- Duration
- 2days
- 15 Oct 2017 – 16 Oct 2017
- Municipalities hit
- 3
- freguesias
- Started on
- 15 Oct
- 2017
- Heat detections
- 11
- in a single hotspot: 108 MW
- Danger at start
- 28
- High · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 184MW
- 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 20 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 24.1 mm on 17 Oct.
This area had burned before
No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.
What happened to each town
-
156 ha reached on 15 Oct16 %
-
Gondomil e Safins 418 inhabitants · 0.7 km from the centre134 ha reached on 15 Oct7.5 %
-
Verdoejo 573 inhabitants · fire reached the centre58 ha reached on 15 Oct14 %
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 woodland53 %
- Coniferous forest20 %
- Broadleaved forest17 %
- Other natural land6.9 %
- Agricultural areas1.2 %
- Mixed forest0.9 %
Land cover inside the perimeter according to Corine Land Cover, as reported by Copernicus.
Official record
According to ICNF, this fire started on 15 October 2017 and burned 354 ha (the satellite measured 347 ha).
- Valença Ganfei 15 October 2017 · 13:28 354 ha · extinguished on 16 October 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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 15 Oct | 31.1 °C | 28 % | 55 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 16 Oct | 22.4 °C | 56 % | 57 km/h | 24.9 mm | Very low 0 |
| 17 Oct after | 18.6 °C | 60 % | 52 km/h | 24.1 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 16 October 2017 the air beside the fire reached 74 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 36: 2.4 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 · 11Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 3,893 haMonção MerufeOctober 2017 · 2 days · 14 km away
- 3,333 haAs NevesOctober 2017 · 1 day · 18 km away
- 9,224 haCabração e Moreira do LimaAugust 2016 · 5 days · 25 km away
- 6,662 haArcos de Valdevez Soajo8 August 2016 · 9 days · 28 km away
- 8,722 haPazos de BorbénOctober 2017 · 1 day · 34 km away
- 7,225 haPonte da Barca Entre Ambos-os-Rios, Ermida e GermilJuly 2025 · 11 days · 37 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Valença fire last?
- Copernicus dates it between 15 October 2017 and 16 October 2017: 2 days between the first and last image with fire. According to ICNF, it was detected on 15 October 2017 at 13:28 and declared extinguished on 16 October 2017.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 347 hectares (3.5 km²). Official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 3 municipalities: Ganfei (156 ha, 16 %); Gondomil e Safins (134 ha, 7.5 %); Verdoejo (58 ha, 14 %).
- Did the fire reach a town?
- The fire reached the centre of Verdoejo: 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 31.1 °C, humidity dropped to 28 % and gusts hit 57 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 28, class 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 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
No changes since 24 October 2026.
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 from the perimeter: the VIIRS detections inside it did not change them. 11 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
- Compared with ICNF: 354 official ha against 347 ha of perimeter; they agree within 25%.
- Weather: Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, in cells of about 25 km.
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.