Escot fire, February 2026 Escot, Lurbe-Saint-Christau, Oloron-Sainte-Marie
The fire started on 24 February 2026 in Escot, France, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 701 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 5 municipalities.
It is the 4th largest in Pyrénées-Atlantiques since 2016 (of 68 with a page). Number 14 in France in 2026, of 114.
The power measured by the satellite is low (24.8 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
- 701ha
- Copernicus perimeter
- Duration
- 1day
- 24 Feb 2026 – 24 Feb 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 5
- communes
- Started on
- 24 Feb
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 29
- in a single hotspot: 25 MW
- Danger at start
- 2
- Very low · FWI index
- Energy released
- 137MW
- 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 3 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 3.0 mm on 27 Feb.
This area had burned before
85% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 36 ha in 2017, 410 ha in 2019, 198 ha in 2020, 436 ha in 2021, 330 ha in 2022, 376 ha in 2023, 142 ha in 2024, 489 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 599 ha that had burned before.
- 477 ha Escot fire, February 2025 629 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 430 ha Escot fire, February 2021 566 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 314 ha Escot fire, February 2023 361 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 273 ha Escot fire, February 2019 326 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 198 ha Escot fire, February 2020 264 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 156 ha Escot fire, February 2022 166 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 142 ha Escot fire, March 2024 144 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 135 ha Escot fire, February 2022 143 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
457 ha reached on 24 Feb20 %
-
Lurbe-Saint-Christau 207 inhabitants · 0.9 km from the town115 ha15 %
-
Oloron-Sainte-Marie 10,684 inhabitants · 8.5 km from the town87 ha reached on 24 Feb1.3 %
-
Bilhères 154 inhabitants · 6.5 km from the town30 ha reached on 25 Feb1.8 %
-
Arudy 2,228 inhabitants · 8.4 km from the town12 ha0.4 %
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 land83 %
- Broadleaved forest13 %
- Agricultural areas3.3 %
- Mixed forest0.7 %
Natura 2000 protected area affected: 0 %
- LIC Le Gave d'Aspe et le Lourdios (cours d'eau) FR7200792
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.
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 24 Feb | 19.4 °C | 31 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very low 2 |
| 25 Feb after | 18.8 °C | 32 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very low 3 |
| 26 Feb after | 17.1 °C | 45 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very low 4 |
| 27 Feb after | 17.2 °C | 46 % | 39 km/h | 3.0 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 26 February 2026 the air beside the fire reached 22 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 · 29Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 629 haEscotFebruary 2025 · 3 days · 0 km away
- 690 haArette16 February 2019 · 4 days · 17 km away
- 860 haSainte-Engrâce14 February 2019 · 3 days · 26 km away
- 1,172 haLarrau24 February 2026 · 1 day · 33 km away
- 571 haAlçay-Alçabéhéty-SunharetteFebruary 2019 · 4 days · 34 km away
- 1,316 haAussurucqFebruary 2026 · 1 day · 37 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Escot fire last?
- Copernicus dates it between 24 February 2026 and 24 February 2026: 1 day between the first and last image with fire.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 701 hectares (7.0 km²). Official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 5 municipalities: Escot (457 ha, 20 %); Lurbe-Saint-Christau (115 ha, 15 %); Oloron-Sainte-Marie (87 ha, 1.3 %); Bilhères (30 ha, 1.8 %); Arudy (12 ha, 0.4 %).
- Did the fire reach a town?
- The closest fire to a town centre came within 0.7 km of Escot. 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 19.4 °C, humidity dropped to 31 % and gusts hit 29 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.