Vila Real fire, 3 August 2025 Vila Marim, Ermelo e Pardelhas, Pena, Quintã e Vila Cova
The fire started on 3 August 2025 in Vila Marim, Portugal, and satellites saw it burning for 13 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 6,087 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 9 municipalities. According to ICNF, it was detected on 2 August 2025 at 23:45 and declared extinguished on 9 August 2025.
It is the largest fire in Vila Real since 2016 (of 10 with a page). Number 8 in Portugal in 2025, of 85.
Compare with…
- Burnt area
- 6,087ha
- Copernicus perimeter
- Duration
- 13days
- 3 Aug 2025 – 15 Aug 2025
- Municipalities hit
- 9
- freguesias
- Started on
- 3 Aug
- 2025
- Heat detections
- 412
- in a single hotspot: 194 MW
- Danger at start
- 37
- High · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 1.2GW
- 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 13 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
47% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 51 ha in 2016, 829 ha in 2017, 153 ha in 2019, 135 ha in 2020, 509 ha in 2021, 1,591 ha in 2022, 351 ha in 2024. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,877 ha that had burned before.
- 1,422 ha Vila Real fire, August 2022 5,850 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 456 ha Vila Real fire, August 2017 770 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 315 ha Vila Pouca de Aguiar fire, September 2024 6,118 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 227 ha Mondim de Basto fire, January 2021 227 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 173 ha Vila Real fire, January 2017 213 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 142 ha Mondim de Basto fire, September 2021 142 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 90 ha Mondim de Basto fire, January 2022 133 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 70 ha Ribeira de Pena fire, October 2017 2,117 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
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
-
1,433 ha reached on 5 Aug61 %
-
Ermelo e Pardelhas 378 inhabitants · fire reached the centre1,341 ha reached on 3 Aug29 %
-
Pena, Quintã e Vila Cova 713 inhabitants · fire reached the centre1,267 ha reached on 3 Aug51 %
-
Adoufe e Vilarinho de Samardã 2,658 inhabitants · fire reached the centre1,170 ha reached on 12 Aug31 %
-
Borbela e Lamas de Olo 2,890 inhabitants · fire reached the centre751 ha reached on 10 Aug18 %
-
Mondrões 948 inhabitants · 1.7 km from the centre79 ha reached on 3 Aug7.2 %
-
Lordelo 0.7 km from the centre46 ha8.9 %
-
Torgueda 1,234 inhabitants · 1.9 km from the centre5 ha0.4 %
-
Alvadia 165 inhabitants · 4.9 km from the centre0 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
- Other natural land74 %
- Scrub and transitional woodland16 %
- Agricultural areas3.5 %
- Coniferous forest3.4 %
- Mixed forest2.4 %
Natura 2000 protected area affected: 85 %
- LIC Alvão / Marão PTCON0003
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, this fire started on 2 August 2025 and burned 5,843 ha (the satellite measured 6,087 ha).
- Vila Real Pena 2 August 2025 · 23:45 5,843 ha · extinguished on 9 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.
Checked against the press
Checked on 30 September 2026We checked this page against 3 sources published once the fire was out. This is what they add:
- Also known as
- Incêndio da serra do Alvão · Incêndio de Vila Real e Mondim de Basto · Incêndio de Sirarelhos
- Official area reported: 5,947 ha (the satellite measured 6,087 ha)
- Declared under control (not yet extinguished): 13 August 2025
Sources
- ICNF prepara intervenções para recuperar Parque Natural do Alvão — A Voz de Trás-os-Montes, 8 April 2026
- Autarca de Vila Real quer saber o que "não correu bem" na serra do Alvão — Observador, 13 August 2025
- Incêndios: cerca de 3.000 hectares de área ardida em Vila Real e Mondim de Basto — Observador, 6 August 2025
Official figures are measured differently from satellite ones and sometimes cover only part of the fire.
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 Aug | 32.0 °C | 17 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 4 Aug | 33.2 °C | 19 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 5 Aug | 33.1 °C | 17 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 6 Aug | 30.9 °C | 25 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 7 Aug | 32.2 °C | 20 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 8 Aug | 31.3 °C | 24 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 9 Aug | 33.3 °C | 19 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 10 Aug | 33.2 °C | 21 % | 47 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 11 Aug | 32.4 °C | 19 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 12 Aug | 31.6 °C | 19 % | 58 km/h | 0.4 mm | Very high 44 |
| 13 Aug | 29.2 °C | 29 % | 42 km/h | 0.9 mm | High 35 |
| 14 Aug | 31.5 °C | 23 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 15 Aug | 30.5 °C | 23 % | 52 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 16 Aug after | 31.0 °C | 21 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 17 Aug after | 28.4 °C | 25 % | 35 km/h | 0.2 mm | High 37 |
| 18 Aug after | 23.7 °C | 37 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 19 Aug after | 21.5 °C | 40 % | 55 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 20 Aug after | 23.2 °C | 30 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 21 Aug after | 24.1 °C | 31 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 22 Aug after | 25.8 °C | 32 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 23 Aug after | 28.0 °C | 23 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
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 262 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 132: 8.8 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 · 412Every 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 · 8 km away
- 6,118 haVila Pouca de Aguiar Telões17 September 2024 · 3 days · 13 km away
- 2,869 haRibeira de Pena AlvãoSeptember 2016 · 7 days · 14 km away
- 2,728 haCabeceiras de Basto Cavez14 September 2024 · 6 days · 23 km away
- 6,845 haUnião das Freguesias de Campelo e Ovil e Loivos do MonteSeptember 2024 · 3 days · 25 km away
- 7,641 haMurça TresminasJuly 2022 · 5 days · 31 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Vila Real fire last?
- According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 3 August 2025 to 15 August 2025 (13 days). The perimeter dates it from 3 August 2025 to 13 August 2025. According to ICNF, it was detected on 2 August 2025 at 23:45 and declared extinguished on 9 August 2025.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 6,087 hectares (60.9 km²). Official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 9 municipalities: Vila Marim (1,433 ha, 61 %); Ermelo e Pardelhas (1,341 ha, 29 %); Pena, Quintã e Vila Cova (1,267 ha, 51 %); Adoufe e Vilarinho de Samardã (1,170 ha, 31 %); Borbela e Lamas de Olo (751 ha, 18 %); Mondrões (79 ha, 7.2 %); Lordelo (46 ha, 8.9 %); Torgueda (5 ha, 0.4 %); Alvadia (0 ha, 0.0 %).
- Did the fire reach a town?
- The fire started in Vila Marim 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 33.3 °C, humidity dropped to 17 % and gusts hit 58 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 44, 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.
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 3 August 2025 to 13 August 2025. 412 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
- Compared with ICNF: 5,843 official ha against 6,087 ha of perimeter; they agree within 25%.
- Checked against news and agencies: 3 confirmed sources.
- 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.