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Vouzela fire, July 2026 Préstimo e Macieira de Alcoba, União das Freguesias de Belazaima do Chão, Castanheira do Vouga e Agadão, Campia

Out · last detection 8 Jul 2026, 02:11 UTC

The fire started on 2 July 2026 in Cambra e Carvalhal de Vermilhas, Portugal, and satellites saw it burning for 7 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 13,375 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 11 municipalities. According to ICNF, it was detected on 2 July 2026 at 03:04 and declared extinguished on 7 July 2026.

The largest in Portugal in 2026, of 86.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Vouzela · 2017Águeda · 2016Pessegueiro do Vouga · 2024Arouca · 2016

Burnt area
13,375ha
Copernicus perimeter
Duration
≈ 7days
2 Jul 2026 – 8 Jul 2026
Municipalities hit
11
freguesias
Started on
2 Jul
2026
Heat detections
1,119
in a single hotspot: 162 MW
Danger at start
47
Very high · FWI index
Average daily power
5.1GW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 2 Jul8 Jul
8 Jul 2026

How it evolved, day by day

2 Jul 2026 · 862 MW · 18 3 Jul 2026 · 19,644 MW · 778 4 Jul 2026 · 4,887 MW · 315 5 Jul 2026 · 11 MW · 6 8 Jul 2026 · 1 MW · 2
2 Jul 3 Jul 4 Jul 5 Jul 8 Jul

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

The weather it burned in

37°high
58km/h · peak gust
14%lowest humidity

It had gone 5 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 3.0 mm on 12 Jul.

This area had burned before

66% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 4,015 ha in 2016, 4,597 ha in 2017, 3 ha in 2023, 517 ha in 2024.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 8.4% of the area of London (134 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. Préstimo e Macieira de Alcoba 703 inhabitants · fire reached the centre
    2,945 ha reached on 3 Jul
    70 %
  2. União das Freguesias de Belazaima do Chão, Castanheira do Vouga e Agadão 639 inhabitants · fire reached the centre
    2,664 ha reached on 3 Jul
    30 %
  3. Campia 1,434 inhabitants · 0.9 km from the centre
    2,491 ha reached on 3 Jul
    64 %
  4. São João do Monte e Mosteirinho 780 inhabitants · 1.7 km from the centre
    1,467 ha reached on 3 Jul
    22 %
  5. Cambra e Carvalhal de Vermilhas 1,362 inhabitants · fire reached the centre where it started
    1,281 ha reached on 2 Jul
    39 %
  6. Alcofra 910 inhabitants · 0.5 km from the centre
    1,028 ha reached on 3 Jul
    35 %
  7. União das Freguesias de Águeda e Borralha 11,346 inhabitants · 1.8 km from the centre
    654 ha reached on 3 Jul
    18 %
  8. Destriz e Reigoso 587 inhabitants · fire reached the centre
    594 ha reached on 3 Jul
    26 %
  9. União das Freguesias de Arca e Varzielas 559 inhabitants · 2.9 km from the centre
    259 ha reached on 3 Jul
    13 %
  10. Talhadas 1,126 inhabitants · 2.2 km from the centre
    7 ha reached on 3 Jul
    0.2 %
  11. Valongo do Vouga 4,637 inhabitants · 4.3 km from the centre
    0 ha reached on 3 Jul
    0.0 %

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 woodland40 %
  • Mixed forest22 %
  • Coniferous forest14 %
  • Broadleaved forest11 %
  • Agricultural areas7.2 %
  • Other natural land5.0 %

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 2025
Built-up area43 ha
Residents≈ 1,100

Inside the perimeter there were about 43 hectares of built-up land and about 1,100 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 July 2026 and burned 12,791 ha (the satellite measured 13,375 ha).

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 · Incêndio de Vouzela de 2026 · Vouzela wildfire
Official area reported: 12,854 ha (the satellite measured 13,375 ha)

Sources

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)
2 Jul 35.6 °C 14 % 58 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
3 Jul 36.7 °C 18 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
4 Jul 36.9 °C 20 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
5 Jul 35.9 °C 21 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
6 Jul 30.6 °C 38 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
7 Jul 27.4 °C 44 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
8 Jul 28.9 °C 41 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
9 Jul after 24.9 °C 52 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
10 Jul after 26.2 °C 45 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
11 Jul after 26.4 °C 53 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
12 Jul after 23.5 °C 56 % 41 km/h 3.0 mm Low 6

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 25 Jun 2026
After · 15 Jul 2026

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 5 July 2026 the air beside the fire reached 992 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 391: 26 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak992 µg/m³
Days over the guideline2 days
PM101,437 µg/m³
Optical depth0.95
3012345
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 · 1,119Every 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?
The official perimeter only gives the start date (2 July 2026). The end comes from the heat detections inside the perimeter: it burned until 8 July 2026 (7 days from 2 July 2026), the last day with detections before more than 10 days in a row without any, so it is approximate. According to ICNF, it was detected on 2 July 2026 at 03:04 and declared extinguished on 7 July 2026.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 13,375 hectares (133.8 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 11 municipalities: Préstimo e Macieira de Alcoba (2,945 ha, 70 %); União das Freguesias de Belazaima do Chão, Castanheira do Vouga e Agadão (2,664 ha, 30 %); Campia (2,491 ha, 64 %); São João do Monte e Mosteirinho (1,467 ha, 22 %); Cambra e Carvalhal de Vermilhas (1,281 ha, 39 %); Alcofra (1,028 ha, 35 %); União das Freguesias de Águeda e Borralha (654 ha, 18 %); Destriz e Reigoso (594 ha, 26 %); União das Freguesias de Arca e Varzielas (259 ha, 13 %); Talhadas (7 ha, 0.2 %); Valongo do Vouga (0 ha, 0.0 %).
Did the fire reach a town?
The fire started in Cambra e Carvalhal de Vermilhas 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 36.9 °C, humidity dropped to 14 % and gusts hit 58 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 ›

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.
  • 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. 1,119 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
  • Compared with ICNF: 12,791 official ha against 13,375 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 2025, 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.