How long did the Peynier fire last?

Copernicus dates it between 26 July 2017 and 26 July 2017: 1 day between the first and last image with fire.

How much area did it burn?

The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 162 hectares (1.6 km²). Official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire entered 2 municipalities: Peynier (154 ha, 6.2 %); Trets (8 ha, 0.1 %).

Did the fire reach a town?

The closest fire to a town centre came within 2.4 km of Peynier. 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 27.9 °C, humidity dropped to 26 % and gusts hit 72 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 49, 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.

FR · France · 2017-07-26 → 2017-07-26

Peynier fire, July 2017 Peynier, Trets

Out · last detection 26 Jul 2017, 13:16 UTC

The fire started on 26 July 2017 in Peynier, France, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 162 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 14th largest in Bouches-du-Rhône since 2016 (of 18 with a page). Number 18 in France in 2017, of 27.

The power measured by the satellite is low (15.3 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: 162ha; Copernicus perimeter
Duration: 1day; 26 Jul 2017 – 26 Jul 2017
Municipalities hit: 2; communes
Started on: 26 Jul; 2017
Heat detections: 6; in a single hotspot: 15 MW
Danger at start: 49; Very high · FWI index
Energy released: 64MW; sum of detected power

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 26 Jul26 Jul

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

28°high

72km/h · peak gust

26%lowest humidity

It had gone 4 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

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

What happened to each town

Peynier 3,739 inhabitants · 2.4 km from the town where it started

154 ha reached on 26 Jul

6.2 %
Trets 10,946 inhabitants · 5.1 km from the town

8 ha

0.1 %

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

Broadleaved forest79 %
Sclerophyllous scrub17 %
Mixed forest4.9 %

Land cover inside the perimeter according to Corine Land Cover, as reported by Copernicus.

Official record

According to BDIFF, a fire of 96 ha was recorded in Peynier on 26 July 2017 (the satellite measured 162 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.

Peynier 26 July 2017 · 10:00 96 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)
26 Jul	27.9 °C	26 %	72 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 49
27 Jul after	30.9 °C	28 %	50 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40
28 Jul after	32.6 °C	20 %	49 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 46
29 Jul after	29.4 °C	44 %	39 km/h	0.0 mm	High 31
30 Jul after	29.3 °C	41 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	High 31
31 Jul after	32.9 °C	33 %	56 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40
1 Aug after	32.0 °C	36 %	64 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 44
2 Aug after	32.5 °C	37 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	High 32
3 Aug after	33.5 °C	36 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	High 32
4 Aug after	35.3 °C	34 %	34 km/h	0.2 mm	High 32
5 Aug after	36.1 °C	26 %	45 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 43

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 19 Jul 2017

After · 2 Aug 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 29 July 2017 the air beside the fire reached 14 µg/m³ of PM2.5, but no daily average passed the WHO guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak14 µg/m³

Days over the guideline0 days

PM1025 µg/m³

242526272829

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 · 6Every 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 Peynier fire last?: Copernicus dates it between 26 July 2017 and 26 July 2017: 1 day between the first and last image with fire.
How much area did it burn?: The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 162 hectares (1.6 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire entered 2 municipalities: Peynier (154 ha, 6.2 %); Trets (8 ha, 0.1 %).
Did the fire reach a town?: The closest fire to a town centre came within 2.4 km of Peynier. 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 27.9 °C, humidity dropped to 26 % and gusts hit 72 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 49, 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

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.

Report an error

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?

Your connection to the fire (optional) Email (optional)

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