Monze fire, August 2019 Monze, Val-de-Dagne, Fajac-en-Val
The fire started on 15 August 2019 in Monze, France, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 1,107 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 5 municipalities.
It is the 4th largest in Aude since 2016 (of 15 with a page). Number 2 in France in 2019, of 25.
The power measured by the satellite is low (18.1 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.
- Burnt area
- 1,107ha
- Copernicus perimeter
- Duration
- 1day
- 15 Aug 2019 – 15 Aug 2019
- Municipalities hit
- 5
- communes
- Started on
- 15 Aug
- 2019
- Heat detections
- 49
- in a single hotspot: 18 MW
- Danger at start
- 16
- Moderate · FWI index
- Energy released
- 285MW
- sum of detected power
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 2 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 2.1 mm on 18 Aug.
This area had burned before
No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.
What happened to each town
-
597 ha reached on 15 Aug41 %
-
Val-de-Dagne 731 inhabitants · 2.9 km from the town206 ha reached on 15 Aug4.0 %
-
Fajac-en-Val 54 inhabitants · 1.2 km from the town150 ha reached on 15 Aug11 %
-
Montirat 70 inhabitants · 0.8 km from the town143 ha reached on 15 Aug11 %
-
Mas-des-Cours 22 inhabitants · 2.0 km from the town10 ha reached on 15 Aug1.4 %
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 scrub64 %
- Agricultural areas21 %
- Coniferous forest9.4 %
- Broadleaved forest2.7 %
- Scrub and transitional woodland2.2 %
- Mixed forest0.9 %
Natura 2000 protected area affected: 97 %
- ZEPA Corbières occidentales FR9112027
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 1,103 ha was recorded in Montirat on 14 August 2019 (the satellite measured 1,107 ha). The record has no coordinates, so it was matched by municipality and date.
- Montirat 14 August 2019 · 15:57 1,103 ha
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 15 Aug | 23.6 °C | 42 % | 67 km/h | 1.5 mm | Moderate 16 |
| 16 Aug after | 29.8 °C | 27 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 17 Aug after | 31.6 °C | 34 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 18 Aug after | 28.6 °C | 57 % | 48 km/h | 2.1 mm | Low 9 |
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 17 August 2019 the air beside the fire reached 13 µg/m³ of PM2.5, but no daily average passed the WHO 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 · 49Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 809 haMouxJuly 2021 · 2 days · 15 km away
- 11,391 haRibaute FontjoncouseAugust 2025 · 3 days · 26 km away
- 806 haBeaufortJuly 2026 · 1 day · 31 km away
- 1,116 haPaziolsSeptember 2016 · 1 day · 35 km away
- 383 haMailhacJuly 2016 · 3 days · 35 km away
- 745 haMontredon-des-CorbièresJuly 2016 · 2 days · 37 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Monze fire last?
- Copernicus dates it between 15 August 2019 and 15 August 2019: 1 day between the first and last image with fire.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 1,107 hectares (11.1 km²). Official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 5 municipalities: Monze (597 ha, 41 %); Val-de-Dagne (206 ha, 4.0 %); Fajac-en-Val (150 ha, 11 %); Montirat (143 ha, 11 %); Mas-des-Cours (10 ha, 1.4 %).
- Did the fire reach a town?
- The closest fire to a town centre came within 0.3 km of Monze. 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 23.6 °C, humidity dropped to 42 % and gusts hit 67 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 16, class Moderate.
- 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
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.