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Gonfaron fire, August 2021 Le Cannet-des-Maures, La Garde-Freinet, Cogolin

Out · last detection 19 Aug 2021, 12:32 UTC

The fire started on 16 August 2021 in Le Cannet-des-Maures, France, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 6,626 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 9 municipalities.

It is the largest fire in Var since 2016 (of 16 with a page). The largest in France in 2021, of 10.

Burnt area
6,626ha
Copernicus perimeter
Duration
4days
16 Aug 2021 – 19 Aug 2021
Municipalities hit
9
communes
Started on
16 Aug
2021
Heat detections
510
in a single hotspot: 256 MW
Danger at start
63
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
7.8GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

19 Aug 2021
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 16 Aug19 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

171819

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

The weather it burned in

34°high
80km/h · peak gust
18%lowest humidity

It had gone 11 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 4.6 mm on 24 Aug.

This area had burned before

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

What happened to each town

  1. Le Cannet-des-Maures 5,140 inhabitants · 3.5 km from the town
    2,272 ha reached on 17 Aug
    31 %
  2. La Garde-Freinet 1,862 inhabitants · 1.3 km from the town
    1,674 ha reached on 17 Aug
    22 %
  3. Cogolin 12,301 inhabitants · 1.1 km from the town
    733 ha reached on 17 Aug
    26 %
  4. Vidauban 12,608 inhabitants · 4.7 km from the town
    474 ha reached on 18 Aug
    6.2 %
  5. Grimaud 4,587 inhabitants · 1.0 km from the town
    403 ha reached on 17 Aug
    9.1 %
  6. La Môle 1,535 inhabitants · 3.5 km from the town
    398 ha reached on 17 Aug
    8.6 %
  7. Les Mayons 625 inhabitants · 1.3 km from the town
    356 ha reached on 17 Aug
    12 %
  8. Le Luc 11,310 inhabitants · 4.9 km from the town
    245 ha reached on 17 Aug
    5.6 %
  9. Gonfaron 4,496 inhabitants · 3.9 km from the town where it started
    73 ha reached on 17 Aug
    1.8 %

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

  • Sclerophyllous scrub67 %
  • Broadleaved forest14 %
  • Agricultural areas10 %
  • Mixed forest6.5 %
  • Coniferous forest2.2 %
  • Artificial surfaces0.5 %

Natura 2000 protected area affected: 61 %

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 6,832 ha was recorded in Gonfaron on 16 August 2021 (the satellite measured 6,626 ha). The record has no coordinates, so it was matched by municipality and date.

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.

Checked against the press

Checked on 30 September 2026

We checked this page against 3 sources published once the fire was out. This is what they add:

Also known as
Incendie du massif des Maures · Feu de Gonfaron · Incendie de Grimaud / La Garde-Freinet
Official area reported: 6,832 ha (the satellite measured 6,626 ha)
Declared extinguished: 26 August 2021

Sources

Official figures are measured differently from satellite ones and sometimes cover only part of the fire.

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)
16 Aug 34.5 °C 18 % 80 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 63
17 Aug 29.7 °C 25 % 78 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
18 Aug 28.8 °C 27 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
19 Aug 26.8 °C 42 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
20 Aug after 28.3 °C 37 % 36 km/h 0.4 mm High 29
21 Aug after 28.8 °C 34 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
22 Aug after 32.4 °C 30 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
23 Aug after 28.4 °C 28 % 55 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
24 Aug after 24.5 °C 53 % 40 km/h 4.6 mm Low 6

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 9 Aug 2021
After · 26 Aug 2021

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 17 August 2021 the air beside the fire reached 41 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 24: 1.6 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak41 µg/m³
Days over the guideline5 days
PM1081 µg/m³
141516171819202122
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 · 510Every 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 France ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Gonfaron fire last?
Copernicus dates it between 16 August 2021 and 19 August 2021: 4 days between the first and last image with fire.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 6,626 hectares (66.3 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 9 municipalities: Le Cannet-des-Maures (2,272 ha, 31 %); La Garde-Freinet (1,674 ha, 22 %); Cogolin (733 ha, 26 %); Vidauban (474 ha, 6.2 %); Grimaud (403 ha, 9.1 %); La Môle (398 ha, 8.6 %); Les Mayons (356 ha, 12 %); Le Luc (245 ha, 5.6 %); Gonfaron (73 ha, 1.8 %).
Did the fire reach a town?
The closest fire to a town centre came within 1.0 km of Grimaud. 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 34.5 °C, humidity dropped to 18 % and gusts hit 80 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 63, 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

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
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 112 · 18.

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.