Skip to content
worldfires
FR · France · →

Paziols fire, September 2016 Tuchan, Paziols, Padern

Out · last measured on 5 Sept 2016

The fire started on 5 September 2016 in Paziols, France, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 1,116 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 3 municipalities.

It is the 3th largest in Aude since 2016 (of 15 with a page). Number 3 in France in 2016, of 11.

We have the Copernicus perimeter for this fire, but the VIIRS sensors did not capture it in enough detail: no day-by-day evolution, but the split by municipality is there.

Burnt area
1,116ha
Copernicus perimeter
Duration
1day
5 Sept 2016 – 5 Sept 2016
Municipalities hit
3
communes
Started on
5 Sept
2016
Danger at start
43
Very high · FWI index
Natura 2000
45%
of the perimeter is protected land

Where it burned

The weather it burned in

31°high
64km/h · peak gust
27%lowest humidity

It had gone 6 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.9 mm on 10 Sept.

This area had burned before

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

What happened to each town

  1. Tuchan 791 inhabitants · 0.5 km from the town
    473 ha
    7.9 %
  2. Paziols 526 inhabitants · 0.8 km from the town where it started
    440 ha
    16 %
  3. Padern 125 inhabitants · 7.3 km from the town
    203 ha
    6.7 %

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 scrub62 %
  • Agricultural areas29 %
  • Mixed forest4.8 %
  • Other natural land4.3 %

Natura 2000 protected area affected: 45 %

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 789 ha was recorded in Padern on 5 September 2016 (the satellite measured 1,116 ha). The record has no coordinates, so it was matched by municipality and date. The two figures differ a lot, so these may not be exactly the same fire: take them as nearby records.

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 Sept 31.1 °C 27 % 64 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
6 Sept after 31.5 °C 34 % 54 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
7 Sept after 28.9 °C 35 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
8 Sept after 26.5 °C 52 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
9 Sept after 29.5 °C 36 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
10 Sept after 29.3 °C 35 % 37 km/h 1.9 mm Moderate 15

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 29 Aug 2016
After · 12 Sept 2016

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 4 September 2016 the air beside the fire reached 15 µg/m³ of PM2.5, but no daily average passed the WHO guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak15 µg/m³
Days over the guideline0 days
PM1030 µg/m³
345678
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)

Other fires nearby

All fires in France ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Paziols fire last?
Copernicus dates it between 5 September 2016 and 5 September 2016: 1 day between the first and last image with fire.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 1,116 hectares (11.2 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 3 municipalities: Tuchan (473 ha, 7.9 %); Paziols (440 ha, 16 %); Padern (203 ha, 6.7 %).
Did the fire reach a town?
The closest fire to a town centre came within 0.5 km of Tuchan. 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 31.1 °C, humidity dropped to 27 % and gusts hit 64 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 43, class Very 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
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.