A wildfire that has burned through about 13,500 hectares of central Portugal has been brought under control, after becoming the largest blaze recorded in the country so far this year.
The fire broke out in the early hours of July 2, 2026 in Tourelhe, part of the Cambra parish in Vouzela, in the Viseu district. It later spread to the neighbouring municipalities of Oliveira de Frades and Tondela, and crossed into Águeda in the Aveiro district.
Portuguese Civil Protection declared the fire under control on July 5, and by July 6 it had no active fronts, though hot spots remained around its perimeter.
More than 1,000 firefighters stayed on the ground for mopping-up and surveillance, tackling any flare-ups. Officials put the fire’s perimeter at roughly 60 kilometres.
At least two people were seriously hurt during the emergency. A 55-year-old man suffered severe burns as he tried to beat back the flames, and a 34-year-old was left with a serious head injury after falling from a van carrying water.
Several others were treated for minor injuries. A wood-components factory employing 14 people was also destroyed nearby.
Portugal’s interior minister, Luís Neves, said there were indications the fire had been started deliberately, though its cause remained under investigation.
The European Union’s Civil Protection Mechanism was activated on July 3 as Lisbon appealed for outside help. Spain sent about 120 firefighters and dozens of vehicles, while Italy dispatched two Canadair water-bombing aircraft.
The scale of the fire was visible from space. Imagery captured on July 3 by a Sentinel-3 satellite, part of the EU’s Copernicus programme, showed a smoke plume stretching some 620 kilometres out over the Atlantic.
The Vouzela fire came amid a wider surge in wildfire activity. More than 15,000 hectares burned across Portugal between July 1 and 5, with that burned area roughly doubling, according to provisional data from the Integrated Rural Fire Management System (SGIFR).
Across the year as a whole, the SGIFR recorded 30,155 hectares burned, concentrated in the central region with 14,244 hectares and the north with 11,834 hectares. The burned area has almost quadrupled compared with the same period in 2025, the highest since 2017.
The number of fires has risen by about 70 per cent on the same period last year, the most since 2022.
Seven districts remained under red heat warnings on July 6. The Portuguese Government declared a state of alert on July 3 that was due to run until late on July 6, and said it could be extended because of the continuing heat.
More than 100 municipalities across 13 districts were placed on maximum fire alert, spanning the north and centre of the country as well as Faro in the south.
