Aubagne fire, August 2017 Aubagne, Carnoux-en-Provence
The fire started on 19 August 2017 in Aubagne, France, and satellites saw it burning for 2 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 155 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 15th largest in Bouches-du-Rhône since 2016 (of 18 with a page). Number 19 in France in 2017, of 27.
The power measured by the satellite is low (1.9 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.
- Burnt area
- 155ha
- Copernicus perimeter
- Duration
- 2days
- 19 Aug 2017 – 20 Aug 2017
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- communes
- Started on
- 19 Aug
- 2017
- Heat detections
- 3
- in a single hotspot: 2 MW
- Danger at start
- 40
- Very high · FWI index
- Energy released
- 4MW
- sum of detected power
Where it burned
How it evolved, day by day
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
It had gone 51 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.
What happened to each town
-
151 ha reached on 20 Aug2.8 %
-
Carnoux-en-Provence 6,873 inhabitants · 0.7 km from the town3 ha0.9 %
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
- Coniferous forest38 %
- Scrub and transitional woodland36 %
- Other natural land15 %
- Agricultural areas6.4 %
- Artificial surfaces3.9 %
Land cover inside the perimeter according to Corine Land Cover, as reported by Copernicus.
Official record
According to BDIFF, a fire of 230 ha was recorded in Aubagne on 19 August 2017 (the satellite measured 155 ha). The record has no coordinates, so it was matched by municipality and date. The two figures differ a lot, so these may not be exactly the same fire: take them as nearby records.
- Aubagne 19 August 2017 · 17:31 230 ha · cause: arson
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 19 Aug | 27.4 °C | 35 % | 50 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 20 Aug | 26.9 °C | 41 % | 48 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 21 Aug after | 25.7 °C | 52 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 22 Aug after | 24.9 °C | 58 % | 21 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 23 Aug after | 24.6 °C | 63 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 18 |
| 24 Aug after | 24.5 °C | 74 % | 23 km/h | 0.1 mm | Moderate 15 |
| 25 Aug after | 25.8 °C | 62 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 17 |
| 26 Aug after | 26.7 °C | 62 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 16 |
| 27 Aug after | 26.8 °C | 59 % | 19 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 16 |
| 28 Aug after | 27.4 °C | 59 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 19 |
| 29 Aug after | 26.8 °C | 71 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 17 |
| 30 Aug after | 27.1 °C | 67 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 19 |
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 17 August 2017 the air beside the fire reached 18 µg/m³ of PM2.5, but no daily average passed the WHO 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)
Detections table · 3Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Aubagne fire last?
- Copernicus dates it between 19 August 2017 and 20 August 2017: 2 days between the first and last image with fire.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 155 hectares (1.6 km²). Official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Aubagne (151 ha, 2.8 %); Carnoux-en-Provence (3 ha, 0.9 %).
- Did the fire reach a town?
- The closest fire to a town centre came within 0.7 km of Carnoux-en-Provence. 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 27.4 °C, humidity dropped to 35 % and gusts hit 50 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 40, class Very high.
- 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.