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CA · Canada · –

Fraser Valley A fire, 12 July 2026 Fraser Valley A, Thompson-Nicola N (Beautiful *, Fraser Valley B

Out · last detection 28 Aug 2026, 09:41 UTC

The fire started on 12 July 2026 in Fraser Valley A, Canada, and satellites saw it burning for 47 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 61,779 hectares from heat detections, spread across 7 municipalities.

This page is probably a fire complex, not a single fire. GWIS merges into one perimeter the fires that touch over weeks, which in large burning seasons can join dozens of separate fires. The total area is reliable; the origin and dates refer to the whole complex.

Other fire pages in the same area and on the same dates:

Number 2 in Canada in 2026, of 549.

GWIS near-real-time perimeter (Canada, 2025-2026, until NBAC publishes its own): this fire is not compared with fires from earlier years.

Burnt area
61,779ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
47days
12 Jul 2026 – 27 Aug 2026
Municipalities hit
7
municipalities
Started on
12 Jul
2026
Heat detections
8,132
in a single hotspot: 763 MW
Danger at start
4
Very low · FWI index
Average daily power
2.6GW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 12 Jul27 Aug
28 Aug 2026

How it evolved, day by day

12 Jul 2026 · 9 MW · 1 13 Jul 2026 · 12 MW · 3 14 Jul 2026 · 531 MW · 30 15 Jul 2026 · 2,484 MW · 108 16 Jul 2026 · 103 MW · 2 17 Jul 2026 · 86 MW · 40 18 Jul 2026 · 43 MW · 8 19 Jul 2026 · 210 MW · 11 20 Jul 2026 · 131 MW · 42 21 Jul 2026 · 575 MW · 32 22 Jul 2026 · 6,204 MW · 822 23 Jul 2026 · 11,869 MW · 193 24 Jul 2026 · 5,327 MW · 377 25 Jul 2026 · 910 MW · 183 26 Jul 2026 · 5 MW · 1 27 Jul 2026 · 164 MW · 10 29 Jul 2026 · 345 MW · 23 30 Jul 2026 · 1,097 MW · 128 31 Jul 2026 · 8,005 MW · 730 1 Aug 2026 · 1,507 MW · 352 2 Aug 2026 · 8 MW · 4 3 Aug 2026 · 164 MW · 24 4 Aug 2026 · 1,152 MW · 142 5 Aug 2026 · 1,889 MW · 159 6 Aug 2026 · 7,047 MW · 378 7 Aug 2026 · 7,003 MW · 401 8 Aug 2026 · 14,247 MW · 595 9 Aug 2026 · 3,787 MW · 456 10 Aug 2026 · 22,157 MW · 517 11 Aug 2026 · 2,848 MW · 495 12 Aug 2026 · 6,331 MW · 336 13 Aug 2026 · 1,376 MW · 218 14 Aug 2026 · 1,142 MW · 53 15 Aug 2026 · 795 MW · 156 16 Aug 2026 · 726 MW · 58 17 Aug 2026 · 980 MW · 99 18 Aug 2026 · 264 MW · 47 19 Aug 2026 · 194 MW · 55 20 Aug 2026 · 1,255 MW · 201 21 Aug 2026 · 1,862 MW · 291 22 Aug 2026 · 253 MW · 45 23 Aug 2026 · 3 MW · 1 24 Aug 2026 · 446 MW · 16 25 Aug 2026 · 2,632 MW · 108 26 Aug 2026 · 1,465 MW · 141 27 Aug 2026 · 468 MW · 39 28 Aug 2026 · 5 MW · 1
12 Jul 22 Jul 2 Aug 10 Aug 22 Aug

Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.

Fire front film How it spread from one satellite pass to the next (135 passes) and with what wind. Watch the film

The weather it burned in

28°high
71km/h · peak gust
19%lowest humidity

It had gone 0 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 5.8 mm on 29 Aug.

This area had burned before

0% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 116 ha in 2018, 21 ha in 2021, 19 ha in 2023.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 39% of the area of London (618 km² against 1,583 km²).

London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).

This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.

What happened to each town

  1. Fraser Valley A where it started
    51,638 ha reached on 12 Jul
    22 %
  2. 9,099 ha reached on 24 Jul
    3.9 %
  3. 3,633 ha reached on 11 Aug
    1.2 %
  4. 81 ha reached on 15 Jul
    57 %
  5. 44 ha reached on 22 Jul
    100 %
  6. 37 ha reached on 22 Jul
    100 %
  7. 32 ha reached on 23 Jul
    80 %

Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the GWIS 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.

People and buildings inside the perimeter

GHSL 2025
Built-up area8.3 ha
Residents≈ 400

Inside the perimeter there were about 8.3 hectares of built-up land and about 400 residents (GHSL 2025, satellite-based estimate).

This is an estimate on 100 m cells, made from satellite imagery and census data: it does not mean that homes burned or that anyone was harmed. The perimeter also contains land that never burned. The GHSL 2025 epoch is a projection made from 2020 and earlier data.

Source: Global Human Settlement Layer (GHS-BUILT-S and GHS-POP R2023A), European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC), © European Union, CC BY 4.0. Sum inside the perimeter computed by WorldFires. human-settlement.emergency.copernicus.eu

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)

Started with Strong wind: 15 % of the area in Canada

Day High Min. humidity Peak gust Rain Danger (FWI)
12 Jul 14.8 °C 37 % 62 km/h 2.2 mm Very low 4
13 Jul 19.9 °C 29 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Low 10
14 Jul 21.9 °C 25 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
15 Jul 24.0 °C 25 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
16 Jul 24.0 °C 33 % 31 km/h 0.3 mm Moderate 21
17 Jul 20.4 °C 36 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 17
18 Jul 15.0 °C 55 % 55 km/h 0.7 mm Moderate 14
19 Jul 20.5 °C 41 % 28 km/h 0.1 mm Low 11
20 Jul 23.0 °C 33 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
21 Jul 27.1 °C 21 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
22 Jul 27.6 °C 19 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
23 Jul 23.5 °C 39 % 44 km/h 2.1 mm High 28
24 Jul 21.8 °C 41 % 56 km/h 0.1 mm Low 9
25 Jul 15.9 °C 58 % 54 km/h 2.2 mm Low 6
26 Jul 13.1 °C 70 % 48 km/h 3.3 mm Very low 2
27 Jul 15.4 °C 61 % 45 km/h 1.7 mm Very low 2
28 Jul 15.4 °C 56 % 70 km/h 4.3 mm Very low 1
29 Jul 19.4 °C 32 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 4
30 Jul 19.3 °C 32 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 13
31 Jul 23.6 °C 28 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 17
1 Aug 13.2 °C 50 % 71 km/h 1.7 mm Low 6
2 Aug 13.5 °C 46 % 30 km/h 1.2 mm Very low 4
3 Aug 20.2 °C 28 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Low 11
4 Aug 20.8 °C 34 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 13
5 Aug 23.1 °C 28 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
6 Aug 24.9 °C 24 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 21
7 Aug 22.9 °C 30 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
8 Aug 20.5 °C 40 % 44 km/h 0.3 mm Moderate 21
9 Aug 19.7 °C 43 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
10 Aug 17.9 °C 48 % 48 km/h 0.2 mm Moderate 21
11 Aug 18.8 °C 45 % 31 km/h 1.5 mm Moderate 18
12 Aug 20.0 °C 30 % 37 km/h 0.4 mm Low 11
13 Aug 20.9 °C 31 % 32 km/h 0.7 mm Moderate 17
14 Aug 19.1 °C 37 % 27 km/h 1.1 mm Moderate 13
15 Aug 19.7 °C 35 % 26 km/h 0.4 mm Low 9
16 Aug 20.9 °C 33 % 20 km/h 0.2 mm Moderate 14
17 Aug 23.0 °C 26 % 35 km/h 0.2 mm Moderate 20
18 Aug 22.7 °C 41 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
19 Aug 22.2 °C 43 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 21
20 Aug 25.5 °C 26 % 24 km/h 0.1 mm High 22
21 Aug 26.9 °C 20 % 34 km/h 0.1 mm High 30
22 Aug 21.2 °C 45 % 47 km/h 5.0 mm Moderate 19
23 Aug 13.4 °C 71 % 33 km/h 3.2 mm Very low 0
24 Aug 22.7 °C 34 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 3
25 Aug 24.6 °C 23 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 15
26 Aug 21.5 °C 37 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
27 Aug 14.0 °C 59 % 50 km/h 3.2 mm Very low 4
28 Aug after 13.6 °C 53 % 42 km/h 0.4 mm Low 5
29 Aug after 11.8 °C 68 % 34 km/h 5.8 mm Very low 0

Before and after, from space

Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.

Before · 5 Jul 2026
After · 3 Sept 2026

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 · Copernicus

On 25 July 2026 the air beside the fire reached 462 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 252: 17 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak462 µg/m³
Days over the guideline46 days
PM10464 µg/m³
Optical depth2.27
14 Jul24 Jul3 Aug13 Aug23 Aug
Good Fair Moderate Poor Very poor Extremely poor

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 · 8,132Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
⬇ Download CSV Times in UTC. Each detection is a 375 m pixel: a large fire yields hundreds per pass.
Date and timeSatelliteFRP (MW)LatLon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Canada

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Fraser Valley A fire last?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 12 July 2026 to 27 August 2026 (47 days). The perimeter dates it from 18 July 2026 to 27 August 2026.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 61,779 hectares (617.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 7 municipalities: Fraser Valley A (51,638 ha, 22 %); Thompson-Nicola N (Beautiful * (9,099 ha, 3.9 %); Fraser Valley B (3,633 ha, 1.2 %); Kopchitchin 2 (81 ha, 57 %); Boston Bar 1A (44 ha, 100 %); Tuckkwiowhum 1 (37 ha, 100 %); Bucktum 4 (32 ha, 80 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 27.6 °C, humidity dropped to 19 % and gusts hit 71 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 30, class High.
Where does this data come from?
From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Canada (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: 911 · Emergency number and official warnings

Satellite cross-check

History of this page · 2 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
  1. Area: 64,716 → 61,779 ha.
  2. Start date: 16 July 2026 → 12 July 2026.

RSS Changes to this page With cross-checks and a citable version

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
What do you think is wrong?

We will only use your email to reply about this report. Privacy. This is not an emergency service: if there is a fire now, call 911.

How we know this
  • Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery; 7 polygons grouped in this page.
  • Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 18 July 2026 to 27 August 2026. 8,132 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.
  • Built-up area and population come from the JRC Global Human Settlement Layer (epoch 2025, 100 m cells), summed inside the perimeter: an estimate of what was there, not a damage count.

How we build fire pages: methodology

Where this data comes from

The perimeter comes from the Copernicus Global Wildfire Information System (GWIS), which rebuilds it from MODIS and VIIRS heat detections and publishes it under CC BY 4.0. It is not measured on imagery as in Europe, so it is an estimate. 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 ADM3 (Open Data Commons Open Database License 1.0). The area per municipality is computed by WorldFires by crossing the perimeter with those boundaries, so it may differ from each country’s official figure.