The fire started on 10 August 2016 in Les Pennes-Mirabeau, France, and satellites saw it burning for 2 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 3,015 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 5 municipalities.
It is the largest fire in Bouches-du-Rhône since 2016 (of 18 with a page). The largest in France in 2016, of 11.
The power measured by the satellite is low (18.8 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.
Perimeter published by EFFIS (Copernicus).
BDIFF: 2,663 ha (matched records: 1). Difference between the page and the official record: +13.2%. Matched on 8 November 2026.
10 Aug 2016 to 11 Aug 2016: first and last day with fire on the page.
Satellites pass a few times a day and cloud or smoke can hide the fire: a lack of detections is not an official extinction. Each country’s emergency service declares a fire contained or out.
Alert according to BDIFF: 10 August 2016 at 15:09. Official cause: negligence.
First day with fire on the page (satellite or perimeter): 10 August 2016.
VIIRS detections at 375 m. Most intense hotspot: 19 MW.
There is no official record to compare with. Each hotspot is a pixel detected in one satellite pass, not a separate fire.
Total radiative power on 11 August 2016; hotspots that day: 72.
Fire radiative power (FRP) measures the energy the fire gives off when the satellite passes. Added up by day, it compares intensity, not area.
Fire Weather Index (Canadian system) computed by WorldFires for the day the fire started. Consecutive days without rain before: 4.
This is an index computed from weather model data, not a measurement of the fire nor an official warning. Danger warnings are issued by each country’s authority. Emergency number and official warnings
High of 28.8 °C and minimum humidity of 28% on 11 August 2016; gusts of 74 km/h on 10 August 2016.
These are model values for a cell of about 25 km, not from a weather station: they may differ from what was measured on the ground.
Estimated residents inside the perimeter and 98 ha of built-up area (100 m grid, epoch 2015).
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.
This page’s change log has been kept since 24 October 2026: every night what it publishes is compared and the difference is logged. Anything earlier is reconstructed from each source’s date and marked as reconstructed.
Every night a snapshot of what the page shows is saved. If anything changes, it appears in the list as a log entry.
A version keeps the area, dates, name and official record; the area as it was logged (changes under 2% are not logged). The map, hotspots and weather always show today’s data.
| fecha | focos_viirs | frp_mw | tmax_c | tmin_c | hr_min_pct | viento_max_kmh | racha_max_kmh | precip_mm | fwi | clase_fwi | dentro_del_incendio |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016-08-10 | 0 | 0 | 27.7 | 17.7 | 25 | 38.3 | 74.2 | 0 | 84.5 | muy_extremo | 1 |
| 2016-08-11 | 72 | 344 | 28.8 | 16.7 | 28 | 30.1 | 57.2 | 0 | 42.1 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2016-08-12 | 0 | 0 | 29.4 | 14.9 | 31 | 17.2 | 33.1 | 0 | 35.1 | alto | 0 |
| 2016-08-13 | 0 | 0 | 29.5 | 16.3 | 33 | 13.8 | 32 | 0 | 37.9 | alto | 0 |
| 2016-08-14 | 0 | 0 | 30.5 | 16.3 | 29 | 13.4 | 31 | 0 | 33.8 | alto | 0 |
| 2016-08-15 | 0 | 0 | 29.6 | 16.1 | 34 | 14.8 | 31 | 0 | 35.7 | alto | 0 |
| 2016-08-16 | 0 | 0 | 27.5 | 17.5 | 55 | 13.2 | 30.2 | 0 | 27.1 | alto | 0 |
| 2016-08-17 | 0 | 0 | 29.8 | 20.1 | 51 | 18.3 | 37.8 | 0 | 31.1 | alto | 0 |
| 2016-08-18 | 0 | 0 | 31.8 | 19.3 | 42 | 18.9 | 38.9 | 0 | 27.5 | alto | 0 |
| 2016-08-19 | 0 | 0 | 30.6 | 20.4 | 43 | 17.2 | 34.6 | 0 | 30.4 | alto | 0 |
| 2016-08-20 | 0 | 0 | 28.9 | 20.3 | 52 | 18.2 | 33.8 | 0 | 20.3 | moderado | 0 |
| 2016-08-21 | 0 | 0 | 28.2 | 19.2 | 29 | 35.9 | 68.8 | 0 | 72.7 | muy_extremo | 0 |
It is generated in your browser from this page’s data: one file per fire, aggregated by day and without individual hotspots.
It updates itself while the fire is still active and links to this page. Free, with the attribution shown at the bottom.
Sources for this page: EFFIS (Copernicus), NASA FIRMS (VIIRS), BDIFF, ERA5 (ECMWF/Copernicus C3S) · Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0), GHSL (JRC). Open-Meteo.com · How we build fire pages: methodology
11 Aug 2016 · 344 MW · 72
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
It had gone 4 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.
London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).
Paris boundary: geoBoundaries · Institut national de l'information géographique et forestière (IGN-F) (Etalab Open License 2.0).
Madrid boundary: geoBoundaries · Open Data ESRI, IGN Central Registry of Cartography Area (CC BY 4.0).
Berlin boundary: geoBoundaries · Federal Agency for Cartography and Geodesy (dl-de/by-2-0).
This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.
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.
Natura 2000 protected area affected: 35 %
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.
Inside the perimeter there were about 98 hectares of built-up land and about 4,700 residents (GHSL 2015, 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.
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
According to BDIFF, a fire of 2,663 ha was recorded in Rognac on 10 August 2016 (the satellite measured 3,015 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.
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 Extreme FWI: 30 % of the area in France Strong wind: 47 % of the area in France
| Day | High | Min. humidity | Peak gust | Rain | Danger (FWI) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10 Aug | 27.7 °C | 25 % | 74 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 84 |
| 11 Aug | 28.8 °C | 28 % | 57 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 12 Aug after | 29.4 °C | 31 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 13 Aug after | 29.5 °C | 33 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 14 Aug after | 30.5 °C | 29 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 15 Aug after | 29.6 °C | 34 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 16 Aug after | 27.5 °C | 55 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 17 Aug after | 29.8 °C | 51 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 18 Aug after | 31.8 °C | 42 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 19 Aug after | 30.6 °C | 43 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 20 Aug after | 28.9 °C | 52 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 21 Aug after | 28.2 °C | 29 % | 69 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 73 |
It started with an FWI of 84.5, a minimum humidity of 25% and 4 days without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 8.
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 3.3 mm on 8 Aug.
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 1.5 mm on 11 Jul.
Fires in the area that started in similar weather: 8. With fewer than 15 we give no figures: they would be more noise than signal.
This is a bank of analogues: it shows what usually happens, not what will happen. With fewer than 15 twins we give no figures. How we calculate it
It was considered over on 11 Aug, and not even 1 mm fell in the following ten days: it went out without rain.
Weather on this page: Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Climate Change Service (ERA5)
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.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
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
No changes since 24 October 2026.
RSS Changes to this page With cross-checks and a citable version
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.
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.