Moux fire, July 2025 Moux, Fontcouverte, Douzens
The fire started on 5 July 2025 in Moux, France, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 366 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 3 municipalities.
It is the 8th largest in Aude since 2016 (of 15 with a page). Number 6 in France in 2025, of 23.
We have the Copernicus perimeter for this fire, but not yet its hotspots: NASA publishes the yearly hotspot archive only once the year closes. The page picks it up automatically when it is available.
- Burnt area
- 366ha
- Copernicus perimeter
- Duration
- 1day
- 5 Jul 2025 – 5 Jul 2025
- Municipalities hit
- 3
- communes
- Started on
- 5 Jul
- 2025
- Danger at start
- 36
- High · FWI index
- Natura 2000
- 85%
- of the perimeter is protected land
Where it burned
The weather it burned in
It had gone 2 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 5.9 mm on 12 Jul.
This area had burned before
68% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 248 ha in 2021.
What happened to each town
-
255 ha16 %
-
Fontcouverte 575 inhabitants · 0.7 km from the town99 ha9.8 %
-
Douzens 784 inhabitants · 3.0 km from the town12 ha0.8 %
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 scrub75 %
- Agricultural areas24 %
- Coniferous forest1.1 %
Natura 2000 protected area affected: 85 %
- 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 365 ha was recorded in Douzens on 5 July 2025 (the satellite measured 366 ha). The record has no coordinates, so it was matched by municipality and date.
- Douzens 5 July 2025 · 13:33 365 ha · cause: negligence
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5 Jul | 33.6 °C | 30 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 6 Jul after | 28.4 °C | 31 % | 49 km/h | 0.4 mm | High 37 |
| 7 Jul after | 25.8 °C | 44 % | 74 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 8 Jul after | 27.6 °C | 31 % | 62 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 9 Jul after | 32.2 °C | 14 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 10 Jul after | 33.7 °C | 17 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 11 Jul after | 31.3 °C | 27 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 12 Jul after | 24.8 °C | 74 % | 30 km/h | 5.9 mm | Very low 1 |
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 4 July 2025 the air beside the fire reached 9 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)
Other fires nearby
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Moux fire last?
- Copernicus dates it between 5 July 2025 and 5 July 2025: 1 day between the first and last image with fire.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 366 hectares (3.7 km²). Official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 3 municipalities: Moux (255 ha, 16 %); Fontcouverte (99 ha, 9.8 %); Douzens (12 ha, 0.8 %).
- Did the fire reach a town?
- The closest fire to a town centre came within 0.7 km of Moux. 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 33.6 °C, humidity dropped to 30 % and gusts hit 46 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 36, class High.
- 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.