Vila Flor fire, August 2026 Seixo de Manhoses, Candoso e Carvalho de Egas, Samões
The fire started on 18 August 2026 in Seixo de Manhoses, Portugal, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 165 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 3 municipalities. According to ICNF, the largest of the 2 recorded fires was detected on 17 August 2026 at 21:54 and declared extinguished on 19 August 2026.
Number 50 in Portugal in 2026, of 78.
The power measured by the satellite is low (6.4 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
- 165ha
- Copernicus perimeter
- Duration
- ≈ 1day
- 18 Aug 2026 – 18 Aug 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 3
- freguesias
- Started on
- 18 Aug
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 13
- in a single hotspot: 6 MW
- Danger at start
- 58
- Extreme · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 35MW
- detected power per day, on average
Where it burned
How it evolved, day by day
18 Aug 2026 · 35 MW · 13
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 41 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.2 mm on 24 Aug.
This area had burned before
No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.
What happened to each town
-
108 ha reached on 18 Aug12 %
-
Candoso e Carvalho de Egas 222 inhabitants · 2.6 km from the centre57 ha reached on 18 Aug5.7 %
-
Samões 338 inhabitants · 2.4 km from the centre1 ha0.0 %
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 woodland52 %
- Agricultural areas47 %
- Artificial surfaces1.2 %
Land cover inside the perimeter according to Corine Land Cover, as reported by Copernicus.
Complex of 2 fires according to ICNF
According to ICNF, 2 fires started inside this perimeter on these dates, totalling 175 ha (the satellite measured 165 ha).
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 Flor Carvalho de Egas 17 August 2026 · 21:54 168 ha · extinguished on 19 August 2026 · cause: arson
- 2 Vila Flor Valtorno 17 August 2026 · 23:05 8 ha · extinguished on 19 August 2026 · cause: arson
Total according to ICNF: 175 ha, 106 % of the 165 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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 18 Aug | 40.1 °C | 15 % | 40 km/h | 0.2 mm | Extreme 58 |
| 19 Aug after | 34.3 °C | 20 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 62 |
| 20 Aug after | 28.8 °C | 37 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 21 Aug after | 29.0 °C | 23 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 22 Aug after | 32.7 °C | 18 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 23 Aug after | 31.4 °C | 20 % | 45 km/h | 0.5 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 24 Aug after | 24.5 °C | 57 % | 69 km/h | 1.2 mm | High 25 |
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 20 August 2026 the air beside the fire reached 196 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 83: 5.5 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 · 13Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 3,403 haTorre de Moncorvo Vilarinho da CastanheiraAugust 2026 · 4 days · 10 km away
- 5,163 haMirandela FrechasAugust 2025 · 3 days · 14 km away
- 5,597 haAlijó Vila ChãJuly 2017 · 3 days · 22 km away
- 7,641 haMurça TresminasJuly 2022 · 5 days · 32 km away
- 5,710 haFreixo de Espada à Cinta LigaresAugust 2017 · 2 days · 32 km away
- 11,932 haFreixo de Espada à Cinta CarviçaisAugust 2025 · 4 days · 35 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Vila Flor fire last?
- The official perimeter only gives the start date (18 August 2026). The end comes from the heat detections inside the perimeter: it burned until 18 August 2026 (1 day from 18 August 2026), the last day with detections before more than 10 days in a row without any, so it is approximate. According to ICNF, the largest of the 2 recorded fires was detected on 17 August 2026 at 21:54 and declared extinguished on 19 August 2026.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 165 hectares (1.6 km²). Official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 3 municipalities: Seixo de Manhoses (108 ha, 12 %); Candoso e Carvalho de Egas (57 ha, 5.7 %); Samões (1 ha, 0.0 %).
- Did the fire reach a town?
- The fire started in Seixo de Manhoses and reached its centre: 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 40.1 °C, humidity dropped to 15 % and gusts hit 40 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 58, 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 · 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.
- The official perimeter has no end date: the end is the last day with VIIRS detections inside the perimeter before a gap of more than 10 days (150 days at most), so it is approximate. 13 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
- Compared with ICNF: 175 official ha against 165 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.