Between 2020 and 2025, 50,218 rural fires with an identifiable fire ignition point were recorded in mainland Portugal. Although around 31% of the rural fires started in areas of high and very high rural fire hazard, these classes, which accounted for 30.6% of the mainland's surface area, concentrated 80.3% of the burnt area over the period.
The Norte and Centro regions together accounted for 90.7% of the burnt area, representing 42.1% and 48.6%, respectively.
Forest and shrubland were the predominant land uses in areas of high and very high rural fire hazard, accounting for 84.5% and 92.6% of the surface area of these two classes, respectively. Around 77.6% of the mainland's shrubland area and 47.0% of its forest area, were in these hazard classes.
In these areas, 69.6% of the surface area was more than 15 minutes' travel time from a fire brigade. There was also a significant extent of interface between built-up areas and potentially combustible vegetation: 8,168 km of direct interface and 1,373 km of indirect interface 1.
