Ascain fire, February 2021 Ascain, Urrugne
The fire started on 21 February 2021 in Ascain, France, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 483 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 5th largest in Pyrénées-Atlantiques since 2016 (of 68 with a page). Number 3 in France in 2021, of 10.
We have the Copernicus perimeter for this fire, but the VIIRS sensors did not capture it in enough detail: no day-by-day evolution, but the split by municipality is there.
- Burnt area
- 483ha
- Copernicus perimeter
- Duration
- 1day
- 21 Feb 2021 – 21 Feb 2021
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- communes
- Started on
- 21 Feb
- 2021
- Danger at start
- 2
- Very low · FWI index
- Natura 2000
- 91%
- of the perimeter is protected land
Where it burned
The weather it burned in
It had gone 8 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 28.2 mm on 22 Feb.
This area had burned before
No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.
What happened to each town
-
268 ha14 %
-
Urrugne 10,661 inhabitants · 4.4 km from the town215 ha4.2 %
Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the official perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance is from the town centre to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.
What burned
- Other natural land89 %
- Broadleaved forest11 %
Natura 2000 protected area affected: 91 %
- LIC La Nivelle (estuaire, barthes et cours d'eau) FR7200785
- LIC Massif de la Rhune et de Choldocogagna FR7200760
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 BDIFF, a fire of 450 ha was recorded in Urrugne on 20 February 2021 (the satellite measured 483 ha). The record has no coordinates, so it was matched by municipality and date.
- Urrugne 20 February 2021 · 10:49 450 ha
BDIFF (Base de Données sur les Incendies de Forêts en France). This is the agency’s consolidated statistic: it measures the area in its own way, which is why it can differ from the satellite.
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 21 Feb | 16.3 °C | 38 % | 77 km/h | 1.9 mm | Very low 2 |
| 22 Feb after | 10.7 °C | 89 % | 42 km/h | 28.2 mm | Very low 0 |
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 19 February 2021 the air beside the fire reached 46 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 29: 1.9 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)
Other fires nearby
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Ascain fire last?
- Copernicus dates it between 21 February 2021 and 21 February 2021: 1 day between the first and last image with fire.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 483 hectares (4.8 km²). Official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Ascain (268 ha, 14 %); Urrugne (215 ha, 4.2 %).
- Did the fire reach a town?
- The closest fire to a town centre came within 1.5 km of Ascain. That is the distance to the perimeter or nearest hotspot; it does not mean it entered the houses.
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 16.3 °C, humidity dropped to 38 % and gusts hit 77 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 2, class Very low.
- Where does this data come from?
- From the EFFIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of France (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 · 18
Satellite cross-check
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
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 ADM5 (Open Data Commons Attribution License 1.0). 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.