How long did the Ribaute fire last?

Copernicus dates it between 5 August 2025 and 7 August 2025: 3 days between the first and last image with fire.

How much area did it burn?

The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 11,391 hectares (113.9 km²). Official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire entered 17 municipalities: Fontjoncouse (2,138 ha, 77 %); Saint-Laurent-de-la-Cabrerisse (1,821 ha, 72 %); Villesèque-des-Corbières (1,617 ha, 51 %); Durban-Corbières (1,213 ha, 48 %); Jonquières (1,063 ha, 78 %); Coustouge (911 ha, 95 %); Thézan-des-Corbières (776 ha, 29 %); Tournissan (588 ha, 49 %); Ribaute (423 ha, 45 %); Fabrezan (227 ha, 7.8 %); Fraissé-des-Corbières (164 ha, 8.6 %); Albas (151 ha, 6.6 %).

Did the fire reach a town?

The closest fire to a town centre came within 0.0 km of Fontjoncouse. 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 31.6 °C, humidity dropped to 21 % and gusts hit 63 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 51, class Extreme.

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 · 2025-08-05 → 2025-08-07

Ribaute fire, August 2025 Fontjoncouse, Saint-Laurent-de-la-Cabrerisse, Villesèque-des-Corbières

Out · last detection 7 Aug 2025, 13:05 UTC

The fire started on 5 August 2025 in Fontjoncouse, France, and satellites saw it burning for 3 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 11,391 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 17 municipalities.

It is the largest fire in Aude since 2016 (of 15 with a page). The largest in France in 2025, of 23.

Burnt area: 11,391ha; Copernicus perimeter
Duration: 3days; 5 Aug 2025 – 7 Aug 2025
Municipalities hit: 17; communes
Started on: 5 Aug; 2025
Heat detections: 184; in a single hotspot: 139 MW
Danger at start: 51; Extreme · FWI index
Energy released: 2.6GW; sum of detected power

Play back 7 Aug 2025

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 5 Aug7 Aug

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

32°high

63km/h · peak gust

21%lowest humidity

It had gone 12 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

0% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1 ha in 2020, 20 ha in 2021.

What happened to each town

Fontjoncouse 139 inhabitants · 0.0 km from the town

2,138 ha reached on 6 Aug

77 %
Saint-Laurent-de-la-Cabrerisse 753 inhabitants · 0.1 km from the town

1,821 ha reached on 6 Aug

72 %
Villesèque-des-Corbières 386 inhabitants · 0.1 km from the town

1,617 ha reached on 6 Aug

51 %
Durban-Corbières 649 inhabitants · 0.2 km from the town

1,213 ha reached on 6 Aug

48 %
Jonquières 45 inhabitants · 0.0 km from the town

1,063 ha reached on 6 Aug

78 %
Coustouge 117 inhabitants · 0.1 km from the town

911 ha

95 %
Thézan-des-Corbières 573 inhabitants · 1.6 km from the town

776 ha reached on 6 Aug

29 %
Tournissan 292 inhabitants · 0.2 km from the town

588 ha reached on 6 Aug

49 %
Ribaute 262 inhabitants · 0.3 km from the town where it started

423 ha reached on 6 Aug

45 %
Fabrezan 1,306 inhabitants · 2.5 km from the town

227 ha reached on 6 Aug

7.8 %
Fraissé-des-Corbières 232 inhabitants · 1.5 km from the town

164 ha

8.6 %
Albas 87 inhabitants · 1.7 km from the town

151 ha reached on 6 Aug

6.6 %
Roquefort-des-Corbières 1,051 inhabitants · 4.4 km from the town

122 ha

2.7 %
Talairan 440 inhabitants · 2.1 km from the town

98 ha reached on 6 Aug

2.6 %
Lagrasse 554 inhabitants · 0.5 km from the town

60 ha reached on 6 Aug

1.8 %
Camplong-d'Aude 389 inhabitants · 1.9 km from the town

16 ha reached on 6 Aug

1.2 %
Cascastel-des-Corbières 212 inhabitants · 2.1 km from the town

8 ha

0.5 %

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 scrub59 %
Agricultural areas25 %
Coniferous forest8.6 %
Mixed forest4.7 %
Scrub and transitional woodland2.0 %

Natura 2000 protected area affected: 74 %

ZEPA Basses Corbières FR9110111
ZEPA Corbières occidentales FR9112027
ZEPA Corbières orientales FR9112008
LIC Vallée de l'Orbieu FR9101489

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 11,133 ha was recorded in Ribaute on 5 August 2025 (the satellite measured 11,391 ha). The record has no coordinates, so it was matched by municipality and date.

Ribaute 5 August 2025 · 16:16 11,133 ha · cause: arson

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.

Checked against the press

Checked on 30 September 2026

We checked this page against 3 sources published once the fire was out. This is what they add:

Also known as: Feu du massif des Corbières · Méga-feu de Ribaute · Incendie de l'Aude; Declared extinguished: 28 August 2025

Sources

Suites de l'incendie de Ribaute : Agnès Pannier-Runacher apporte son soutien aux élus et aux acteurs locaux — Ministères Transition écologique (gouvernement francés), 7 September 2025 · official source
Dix mois après le méga-feu de Ribaute, la forêt porte encore les cicatrices — Le Journal Toulousain, 14 June 2026
Le feu qui a ravagé le massif des Corbières depuis mardi est désormais maîtrisé, annonce la préfecture de l'Aude — franceinfo, 10 August 2025

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	Danger (FWI)
5 Aug	31.6 °C	21 %	63 km/h	Extreme 51
6 Aug	31.4 °C	27 %	53 km/h	Very high 44
7 Aug	28.9 °C	30 %	38 km/h	High 31
8 Aug after	29.3 °C	53 %	32 km/h	Moderate 20
9 Aug after	34.9 °C	34 %	31 km/h	High 25
10 Aug after	39.6 °C	17 %	52 km/h	Extreme 54
11 Aug after	36.2 °C	23 %	42 km/h	Very high 45
12 Aug after	37.7 °C	23 %	40 km/h	Very high 49
13 Aug after	36.2 °C	24 %	42 km/h	Very high 50
14 Aug after	38.1 °C	17 %	37 km/h	Very high 47
15 Aug after	37.6 °C	18 %	28 km/h	Very high 42
16 Aug after	39.3 °C	15 %	58 km/h	Extreme 65
17 Aug after	36.7 °C	16 %	57 km/h	Extreme 65

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 29 Jul 2025

After · 14 Aug 2025

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 9 August 2025 the air beside the fire reached 56 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 32: 2.2 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak56 µg/m³

Days over the guideline2 days

PM1077 µg/m³

Optical depth0.57

WHO 15

345678910

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 · 184Every 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 Ribaute fire last?: Copernicus dates it between 5 August 2025 and 7 August 2025: 3 days between the first and last image with fire.
How much area did it burn?: The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 11,391 hectares (113.9 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire entered 17 municipalities: Fontjoncouse (2,138 ha, 77 %); Saint-Laurent-de-la-Cabrerisse (1,821 ha, 72 %); Villesèque-des-Corbières (1,617 ha, 51 %); Durban-Corbières (1,213 ha, 48 %); Jonquières (1,063 ha, 78 %); Coustouge (911 ha, 95 %); Thézan-des-Corbières (776 ha, 29 %); Tournissan (588 ha, 49 %); Ribaute (423 ha, 45 %); Fabrezan (227 ha, 7.8 %); Fraissé-des-Corbières (164 ha, 8.6 %); Albas (151 ha, 6.6 %).
Did the fire reach a town?: The closest fire to a town centre came within 0.0 km of Fontjoncouse. 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 31.6 °C, humidity dropped to 21 % and gusts hit 63 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 51, class Extreme.
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.

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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