How long did the Hyères fire last?

Copernicus dates it between 2 September 2017 and 3 September 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 466 hectares (4.7 km²). Official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire entered 2 municipalities: Hyères (235 ha, 1.8 %); La Londe-les-Maures (231 ha, 2.9 %).

Did the fire reach a town?

The closest fire to a town centre came within 1.9 km of La Londe-les-Maures. 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 27.1 °C, humidity dropped to 26 % and gusts hit 78 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 52, 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.

FR · France · 2017-09-02 → 2017-09-03

Hyères fire, September 2017 Hyères, La Londe-les-Maures

Out · last detection 3 Sept 2017, 01:21 UTC

The fire started on 2 September 2017 in Hyères, France, and satellites saw it burning for 2 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 466 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 2 municipalities.

Number 11 in France in 2017, of 27.

Burnt area: 466ha; Copernicus perimeter
Duration: 2days; 2 Sept 2017 – 3 Sept 2017
Municipalities hit: 2; communes
Started on: 2 Sept; 2017
Heat detections: 25; in a single hotspot: 52 MW
Danger at start: 52; Extreme · FWI index
Energy released: 231MW; sum of detected power

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 2 Sept3 Sept

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

27°high

78km/h · peak gust

26%lowest humidity

It had gone one day without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 19.4 mm on 9 Sept.

This area had burned before

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

What happened to each town

Hyères where it started

235 ha reached on 3 Sept

1.8 %
La Londe-les-Maures 10,584 inhabitants · 1.9 km from the town

231 ha reached on 3 Sept

2.9 %

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

Sclerophyllous scrub56 %
Agricultural areas27 %
Broadleaved forest17 %

Natura 2000 protected area affected: 73 %

LIC La plaine et le massif des Maures FR9301622

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 431 ha was recorded in Hyères on 2 September 2017 (the satellite measured 466 ha). The record has no coordinates, so it was matched by municipality and date.

Hyères 2 September 2017 · 21:45 431 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)
2 Sept	25.3 °C	29 %	78 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 52
3 Sept	27.1 °C	26 %	63 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 46
4 Sept after	27.9 °C	29 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	High 32
5 Sept after	29.4 °C	38 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	High 29
6 Sept after	30.5 °C	30 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	High 34
7 Sept after	29.7 °C	23 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	High 33
8 Sept after	27.3 °C	39 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	High 30
9 Sept after	22.2 °C	65 %	45 km/h	19.4 mm	Very low 0

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 26 Aug 2017

After · 10 Sept 2017

Before After

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 3 September 2017 the air beside the fire reached 35 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 15: 1.0 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak35 µg/m³

Days over the guideline1 day

PM1039 µg/m³

WHO 15

31123456

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 · 25Every 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 time	Satellite	FRP (MW)	Lat	Lon

Other fires nearby

All fires in France ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Hyères fire last?: Copernicus dates it between 2 September 2017 and 3 September 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 466 hectares (4.7 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire entered 2 municipalities: Hyères (235 ha, 1.8 %); La Londe-les-Maures (231 ha, 2.9 %).
Did the fire reach a town?: The closest fire to a town centre came within 1.9 km of La Londe-les-Maures. 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 27.1 °C, humidity dropped to 26 % and gusts hit 78 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 52, 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

Sécurité civile ↗

Satellite cross-check

NASA FIRMS ↗
EFFIS · Copernicus ↗

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.

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What do you think is wrong?

Dates or duration Place or towns Burned area Name It was not a wildfire Same fire as another page Something else

What really happened?

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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.

Where it burned