Fos-sur-Mer fire, 10 August 2016 Fos-sur-Mer
The fire started on 10 August 2016 in Fos-sur-Mer, France, and satellites saw it burning for 3 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 118 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 16th largest in Bouches-du-Rhône since 2016 (of 18 with a page). Number 11 in France in 2016, of 11.
Compare with…
- Burnt area
- 118ha
- Copernicus perimeter
- Duration
- 3days
- 10 Aug 2016 – 12 Aug 2016
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- communes
- Started on
- 10 Aug
- 2016
- Heat detections
- 6
- in a single hotspot: 125 MW
- Danger at start
- 56
- Extreme · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 118MW
- detected power per day, on average
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 4 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
-
118 ha reached on 10 Aug1.3 %
Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the official perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance runs from the point marking the centre of each area to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.
What burned
- Artificial surfaces69 %
- Other natural land31 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10 Aug | 27.1 °C | 28 % | 73 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 11 Aug | 27.0 °C | 29 % | 64 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 55 |
| 12 Aug | 28.6 °C | 33 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 13 Aug after | 27.4 °C | 39 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 14 Aug after | 28.1 °C | 37 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 15 Aug after | 27.6 °C | 44 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 16 Aug after | 26.6 °C | 64 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 17 Aug after | 26.8 °C | 61 % | 34 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 22 |
| 18 Aug after | 29.4 °C | 48 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 19 Aug after | 28.2 °C | 51 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 20 Aug after | 27.2 °C | 61 % | 34 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 24 |
| 21 Aug after | 27.8 °C | 33 % | 58 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
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 10 August 2016 the air beside the fire reached 55 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 22: 1.4 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)
Detections table · 6Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 445 haFos-sur-Mer10 August 2016 · 2 days · 6 km away
- 319 haSaint-Mitre-les-RempartsAugust 2020 · 2 days · 11 km away
- 955 haMartiguesAugust 2020 · 2 days · 18 km away
- 318 haEnsuès-la-RedonneJuly 2016 · 1 day · 27 km away
- 235 haLançon-ProvenceJune 2026 · 5 days · 29 km away
- 3,015 haLes Pennes-MirabeauAugust 2016 · 2 days · 34 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Fos-sur-Mer fire last?
- According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 10 August 2016 to 12 August 2016 (3 days). The perimeter dates it from 10 August 2016 to 11 August 2016.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 118 hectares (1.2 km²). Official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Fos-sur-Mer (118 ha, 1.3 %).
- Did the fire reach a town?
- The fire started in Fos-sur-Mer and came within 7.8 km of its centre. That is the distance from the perimeter, or the nearest hotspot, to the point marking the centre; it does not mean it entered the houses.
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 27.1 °C, humidity dropped to 28 % and gusts hit 73 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 56, class Extreme.
- 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 · Emergency number and official warnings ›
Satellite cross-check
History of this page Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
No changes since 24 October 2026.
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
How we know this
- Perimeter: EFFIS (Copernicus), mapped on satellite imagery.
- Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 10 August 2016 to 11 August 2016. 6 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
- We have not matched this page with any official record.
- Weather: Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, in cells of about 25 km.
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.