Saint-Pargoire fire, August 2021 Villeveyrac, Saint-Pargoire
The fire started on 18 August 2021 in Saint-Pargoire, France, and satellites saw it burning for 2 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 248 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 6th largest in Hérault since 2016 (of 14 with a page). Number 6 in France in 2021, of 10.
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- Burnt area
- 248ha
- Copernicus perimeter
- Duration
- 2days
- 18 Aug 2021 – 19 Aug 2021
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- communes
- Started on
- 18 Aug
- 2021
- Heat detections
- 5
- in a single hotspot: 111 MW
- Danger at start
- 27
- High · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 483MW
- detected power per day, on average
Where it burned
How it evolved, day by day
18 Aug 2021 · 483 MW · 5
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 10 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
10% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 24 ha in 2017.
What happened to each town
-
Villeveyrac 3,972 inhabitants · 1.7 km from the centre130 ha3.5 %
-
118 ha reached on 18 Aug5.0 %
Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the official perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance runs from the point marking the centre of each area to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.
What burned
- Sclerophyllous scrub96 %
- Coniferous forest2.8 %
Natura 2000 protected area affected: 100 %
- ZEPA Garrigues de la Moure et d'Aumelas FR9112037
- LIC Montagne de la Moure et Causse d'Aumelas FR9101393
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.
People and buildings inside the perimeter
GHSL 2020Inside the perimeter there was no noticeable built-up land and almost nobody lived there (GHSL 2020, satellite-based estimate).
This is an estimate on 100 m cells, made from satellite imagery and census data: it does not mean that homes burned or that anyone was harmed. The perimeter also contains land that never burned.
Source: Global Human Settlement Layer (GHS-BUILT-S and GHS-POP R2023A), European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC), © European Union, CC BY 4.0. Sum inside the perimeter computed by WorldFires. human-settlement.emergency.copernicus.eu
Official record
According to BDIFF, a fire of 252 ha was recorded in Saint-Pargoire on 18 August 2021 (the satellite measured 248 ha). The record has no coordinates, so it was matched by municipality and date.
- Saint-Pargoire 18 August 2021 · 13:42 252 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.
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 18 Aug | 27.5 °C | 41 % | 48 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 19 Aug | 27.1 °C | 42 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 20 Aug after | 26.4 °C | 49 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 21 Aug after | 25.4 °C | 66 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 14 |
| 22 Aug after | 28.8 °C | 45 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 23 |
| 23 Aug after | 27.6 °C | 37 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 24 Aug after | 26.6 °C | 40 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 25 Aug after | 25.7 °C | 48 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 26 Aug after | 27.4 °C | 41 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 27 Aug after | 27.5 °C | 38 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 28 Aug after | 27.6 °C | 25 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
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.
Detections table · 5Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Saint-Pargoire fire last?
- According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 18 August 2021 to 19 August 2021 (2 days). The perimeter dates it from 18 August 2021 to 18 August 2021.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 248 hectares (2.5 km²). Official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Villeveyrac (130 ha, 3.5 %); Saint-Pargoire (118 ha, 5.0 %).
- Did the fire reach a town?
- The fire came within 1.7 km of the centre of Villeveyrac, the closest of the areas it touched. That is the distance from the perimeter, or the nearest hotspot, to the point marking the centre; it does not mean it entered the houses.
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 27.5 °C, humidity dropped to 41 % and gusts hit 48 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 27, 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 · Emergency number and official warnings ›
Satellite cross-check
History of this page · 1 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
- Last day with fire: 18 August 2021 → 19 August 2021.
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
How we know this
- Perimeter: EFFIS (Copernicus), mapped on satellite imagery.
- Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 18 August 2021 to 18 August 2021. 5 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
- Compared with BDIFF: 252 official ha against 248 ha of perimeter; they agree within 25%.
- Weather: Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, in cells of about 25 km.
- Built-up area and population come from the JRC Global Human Settlement Layer (epoch 2020, 100 m cells), summed inside the perimeter: an estimate of what was there, not a damage count.
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.