Vila Real fire, 2 August 2025 São Martinho de Antas e Paradela de Guiães, Constantim e Vale de Nogueiras, Souto Maior
The fire started on 2 August 2025 in São Martinho de Antas e Paradela de Guiães, Portugal, and satellites saw it burning for 3 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 1,101 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 5 municipalities. According to ICNF, it was detected on 2 August 2025 at 14:23 and declared extinguished on 4 August 2025.
Number 25 in Portugal in 2025, of 85.
Compare with…
- Burnt area
- 1,101ha
- Copernicus perimeter
- Duration
- 3days
- 2 Aug 2025 – 4 Aug 2025
- Municipalities hit
- 5
- freguesias
- Started on
- 2 Aug
- 2025
- Heat detections
- 63
- in a single hotspot: 113 MW
- Danger at start
- 38
- Very high · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 261MW
- 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 12 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
26% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 265 ha in 2016, 18 ha in 2023.
How big is it?
London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).
Lisbon boundary: geoBoundaries · geoBoundaries, DG Territory (CC0 1.0).
Paris boundary: geoBoundaries · Institut national de l'information géographique et forestière (IGN-F) (Etalab Open License 2.0).
Madrid boundary: geoBoundaries · Open Data ESRI, IGN Central Registry of Cartography Area (CC BY 4.0).
This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.
What happened to each town
-
São Martinho de Antas e Paradela de Guiães 948 inhabitants · 1.9 km from the centre where it started483 ha reached on 3 Aug19 %
-
Constantim e Vale de Nogueiras 1,730 inhabitants · 2.0 km from the centre333 ha reached on 2 Aug13 %
-
Souto Maior 439 inhabitants · 1.4 km from the centre170 ha reached on 3 Aug18 %
-
Paços 676 inhabitants · 0.6 km from the centre66 ha reached on 3 Aug3.8 %
-
Andrães 1,373 inhabitants · 3.3 km from the centre49 ha reached on 2 Aug2.4 %
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 land51 %
- Scrub and transitional woodland31 %
- Agricultural areas17 %
Land cover inside the perimeter according to Corine Land Cover, as reported by Copernicus.
People and buildings inside the perimeter
GHSL 2025Inside the perimeter there were about 1.8 hectares of built-up land and about 50 residents (GHSL 2025, 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. The GHSL 2025 epoch is a projection made from 2020 and earlier data.
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
Official record
According to ICNF, this fire started on 2 August 2025 and burned 1,098 ha (the satellite measured 1,101 ha).
- Vila Real Andrães 2 August 2025 · 14:23 1,098 ha · extinguished on 4 August 2025 · cause: arson
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 Aug | 32.0 °C | 23 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 3 Aug | 33.8 °C | 13 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 4 Aug | 35.6 °C | 18 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 5 Aug after | 35.4 °C | 17 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 6 Aug after | 33.8 °C | 22 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 7 Aug after | 34.9 °C | 16 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 50 |
| 8 Aug after | 34.9 °C | 21 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 9 Aug after | 35.6 °C | 16 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 10 Aug after | 36.4 °C | 15 % | 47 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 55 |
| 11 Aug after | 35.2 °C | 16 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 12 Aug after | 34.2 °C | 18 % | 50 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 57 |
| 13 Aug after | 32.4 °C | 25 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 14 Aug after | 34.2 °C | 18 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
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 7 August 2025 the air beside the fire reached 121 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 54: 3.6 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 · 63Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 5,850 haVila Real Adoufe e Vilarinho de Samardã21 August 2022 · 6 days · 14 km away
- 5,597 haAlijó Vila ChãJuly 2017 · 3 days · 16 km away
- 6,118 haVila Pouca de Aguiar Telões17 September 2024 · 3 days · 17 km away
- 6,087 haVila Real Vila Marim3 August 2025 · 13 days · 17 km away
- 7,641 haMurça TresminasJuly 2022 · 5 days · 25 km away
- 6,845 haUnião das Freguesias de Campelo e Ovil e Loivos do MonteSeptember 2024 · 3 days · 35 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Vila Real fire last?
- Copernicus dates it between 2 August 2025 and 4 August 2025: 3 days between the first and last image with fire. According to ICNF, it was detected on 2 August 2025 at 14:23 and declared extinguished on 4 August 2025.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 1,101 hectares (11.0 km²). Official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 5 municipalities: São Martinho de Antas e Paradela de Guiães (483 ha, 19 %); Constantim e Vale de Nogueiras (333 ha, 13 %); Souto Maior (170 ha, 18 %); Paços (66 ha, 3.8 %); Andrães (49 ha, 2.4 %).
- Did the fire reach a town?
- The fire came within 0.6 km of the centre of Paços, the closest of the areas it touched. That is the distance from the perimeter, or the nearest hotspot, to the point marking the centre; it does not mean it entered the houses.
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 35.6 °C, humidity dropped to 13 % and gusts hit 30 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 47, 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 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.
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How we know this
- Perimeter: EFFIS (Copernicus), mapped on satellite imagery.
- Dates from the perimeter: the VIIRS detections inside it did not change them. 63 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
- Compared with ICNF: 1,098 official ha against 1,101 ha of perimeter; they agree within 25%.
- 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 2025, 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.