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Vouzela fire, October 2017 Campia, Cambra e Carvalhal de Vermilhas, Ventosa

Out · last detection 16 Oct 2017, 02:56 UTC

The fire started on 13 October 2017 in Alcofra, Portugal, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 19,317 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 18 municipalities. According to ICNF, the largest of the 2 recorded fires was detected on 15 October 2017 at 17:21 and declared extinguished on 17 October 2017.

Number 7 in Portugal in 2017, of 210.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Viseu · 2016Vouzela · 2026Castro Daire · 2024Pessegueiro do Vouga · 2024

Burnt area
19,317ha
Copernicus perimeter
Duration
4days
13 Oct 2017 – 16 Oct 2017
Municipalities hit
18
freguesias
Started on
13 Oct
2017
Heat detections
100
in a single hotspot: 31 MW
Danger at start
26
High · FWI index
Average daily power
580MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 13 Oct16 Oct
16 Oct 2017

How it evolved, day by day

13 Oct 2017 · 14 MW · 2 16 Oct 2017 · 1,146 MW · 98
13 Oct 16 Oct

Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.

The weather it burned in

28°high
67km/h · peak gust
21%lowest humidity

It had gone 44 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 17.9 mm on 17 Oct.

This area had burned before

0% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 59 ha in 2016.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 12% of the area of London (193 km² against 1,583 km²).

London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).

This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.

What happened to each town

  1. Campia 1,434 inhabitants · fire reached the centre
    3,826 ha reached on 16 Oct
    98 %
  2. Cambra e Carvalhal de Vermilhas 1,362 inhabitants · fire reached the centre
    2,719 ha
    83 %
  3. Ventosa fire reached the centre
    1,699 ha
    93 %
  4. Alcofra 910 inhabitants · fire reached the centre where it started
    1,633 ha reached on 13 Oct
    56 %
  5. Caparrosa e Silvares 820 inhabitants · fire reached the centre
    1,539 ha
    63 %
  6. Fornelo do Monte 256 inhabitants · fire reached the centre
    1,514 ha
    100 %
  7. Pinheiro 1,115 inhabitants · fire reached the centre
    1,474 ha
    68 %
  8. Queirã 1,227 inhabitants · fire reached the centre
    1,446 ha
    60 %
  9. Oliveira de Frades, Souto de Lafões e Sejães 4,006 inhabitants · fire reached the centre
    1,347 ha reached on 16 Oct
    60 %
  10. Destriz e Reigoso 587 inhabitants · fire reached the centre
    568 ha reached on 16 Oct
    25 %
  11. São Vicente de Lafões 748 inhabitants · fire reached the centre
    542 ha reached on 16 Oct
    66 %
  12. Fataunços e Figueiredo das Donas 988 inhabitants · 0.5 km from the centre
    291 ha
    23 %
  13. Vouzela e Paços de Vilharigues 1,918 inhabitants · 0.7 km from the centre
    286 ha reached on 16 Oct
    20 %
  14. União das Freguesias de Arca e Varzielas 559 inhabitants · 1.3 km from the centre
    165 ha reached on 16 Oct
    8.2 %
  15. Boa Aldeia, Farminhão e Torredeita 2,357 inhabitants · 3.6 km from the centre
    121 ha
    3.4 %
  16. Santiago de Besteiros 1,144 inhabitants · 1.4 km from the centre
    111 ha
    6.9 %
  17. Guardão 1,229 inhabitants · 2.8 km from the centre
    27 ha
    1.4 %
  18. Préstimo e Macieira de Alcoba 703 inhabitants · 6.2 km from the centre
    26 ha
    0.6 %

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

  • Mixed forest24 %
  • Agricultural areas20 %
  • Scrub and transitional woodland19 %
  • Coniferous forest17 %
  • Other natural land15 %
  • Broadleaved forest3.5 %
  • Artificial surfaces2.7 %

Natura 2000 protected area affected: 0 %

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 2015
Built-up area249 ha
Residents≈ 9,300

Inside the perimeter there were about 249 hectares of built-up land and about 9,300 residents (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

Official record

Complex of 2 fires according to ICNF

According to ICNF, 2 fires started inside this perimeter on these dates, totalling 15,754 ha (the satellite measured 19,317 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.

When each one burned

1 8 ha 2 15,745 ha
15 Oct17 Oct
cause unknown or not published arson
  1. 1 Sever do Vouga Talhadas 15 October 2017 · 04:03 8 ha · extinguished on 15 October 2017 · cause: unknown
  2. 2 Vouzela Campia 15 October 2017 · 17:21 15,745 ha · extinguished on 17 October 2017 · cause: arson

Total according to ICNF: 15,754 ha, 82 % of the 19,317 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.

Checked against the press

Checked on 30 September 2026

We checked this page against 4 sources published once the fire was out. This is what they add:

Also known as
Fogo de Vouzela · Incêndios de 15 de outubro de 2017 (Vouzela) · Vouzela fire

Sources

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)
13 Oct 22.2 °C 35 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
14 Oct 24.6 °C 26 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
15 Oct 27.7 °C 21 % 67 km/h 0.1 mm Very high 39
16 Oct 20.6 °C 35 % 54 km/h 0.3 mm High 32
17 Oct after 15.5 °C 49 % 59 km/h 17.9 mm Very low 1

Before and after, from space

Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.

Before · 6 Oct 2017
After · 23 Oct 2017

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 · Copernicus

On 16 October 2017 the air beside the fire reached 346 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 171: 11 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak346 µg/m³
Days over the guideline7 days
PM10450 µg/m³
111213141516171819
Good Fair Moderate Poor Very poor Extremely poor

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 · 100Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
⬇ Download CSV Times in UTC. Each detection is a 375 m pixel: a large fire yields hundreds per pass.
Date and timeSatelliteFRP (MW)LatLon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Portugal ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Vouzela fire last?
Copernicus dates it between 13 October 2017 and 16 October 2017: 4 days between the first and last image with fire. According to ICNF, the largest of the 2 recorded fires was detected on 15 October 2017 at 17:21 and declared extinguished on 17 October 2017.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 19,317 hectares (193.2 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 18 municipalities: Campia (3,826 ha, 98 %); Cambra e Carvalhal de Vermilhas (2,719 ha, 83 %); Ventosa (1,699 ha, 93 %); Alcofra (1,633 ha, 56 %); Caparrosa e Silvares (1,539 ha, 63 %); Fornelo do Monte (1,514 ha, 100 %); Pinheiro (1,474 ha, 68 %); Queirã (1,446 ha, 60 %); Oliveira de Frades, Souto de Lafões e Sejães (1,347 ha, 60 %); Destriz e Reigoso (568 ha, 25 %); São Vicente de Lafões (542 ha, 66 %); Fataunços e Figueiredo das Donas (291 ha, 23 %).
Did the fire reach a town?
The fire started in Alcofra 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 27.7 °C, humidity dropped to 21 % and gusts hit 67 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 39, 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 ›

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.

RSS Changes to this page

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
What do you think is wrong?

We will only use your email to reply about this report. Privacy. This is not an emergency service: if there is a fire now, call 112.

How we know this
  • Perimeter: EFFIS (Copernicus), mapped on satellite imagery; 2 polygons grouped in this page.
  • Dates from the perimeter: the VIIRS detections inside it did not change them. 100 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
  • Compared with ICNF: 15,754 official ha against 19,317 ha of perimeter; they agree within 25%.
  • Checked against news and agencies: 4 confirmed sources.
  • 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.

How we build fire pages: methodology ›

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.