How long did the Saumos fire last?

Copernicus dates it between 22 July 2026 and 25 July 2026: 4 days between the first and last image with fire.

How much area did it burn?

The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 37,363 hectares (373.6 km²). Official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire entered 15 municipalities: Le Porge (8,158 ha, 55 %); Lanton (5,968 ha, 43 %); Saumos (4,816 ha, 84 %); Le Temple (4,445 ha, 62 %); Arès (3,815 ha, 78 %); Lège-Cap-Ferret (3,797 ha, 40 %); Lacanau (2,505 ha, 11 %); Audenge (1,437 ha, 18 %); Saint-Jean-d'Illac (573 ha, 4.7 %); Sainte-Hélène (491 ha, 3.8 %); Cestas (423 ha, 4.2 %); Andernos-les-Bains (393 ha, 19 %).

Did the fire reach a town?

The closest fire to a town centre came within 0.1 km of Saumos. 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 36.0 °C, humidity dropped to 12 % and gusts hit 25 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 40, 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 · 2026-07-22 → 2026-07-25

Saumos fire, July 2026 Le Porge, Lanton, Saumos

Out · last detection 26 Jul 2026, 12:55 UTC

The fire started on 22 July 2026 in Le Temple, France, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 37,363 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 15 municipalities.

It is the largest fire in Gironde since 2016 (of 12 with a page). The largest in France in 2026, of 114.

Burnt area: 37,363ha; Copernicus perimeter
Duration: 4days; 22 Jul 2026 – 25 Jul 2026
Municipalities hit: 15; communes
Started on: 22 Jul; 2026
Heat detections: 2,704; in a single hotspot: 630 MW
Danger at start: 34; High · FWI index
Energy released: 74.9GW; sum of detected power

Play back 26 Jul 2026

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 22 Jul25 Jul

How it evolved, day by day

2223242526

Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.

The weather it burned in

36°high

25km/h · peak gust

12%lowest humidity

It had gone 6 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

1% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 475 ha in 2022, 4 ha in 2025.

What happened to each town

Le Porge 3,465 inhabitants · 0.3 km from the town

8,158 ha reached on 23 Jul

55 %
Lanton 7,337 inhabitants · 4.1 km from the town

5,968 ha reached on 25 Jul

43 %
Saumos 550 inhabitants · 0.1 km from the town where it started

4,816 ha reached on 22 Jul

84 %
Le Temple 652 inhabitants · 0.6 km from the town

4,445 ha reached on 22 Jul

62 %
Arès 6,482 inhabitants · 1.6 km from the town

3,815 ha reached on 20 Jul

78 %
Lège-Cap-Ferret

3,797 ha reached on 20 Jul

40 %
Lacanau 5,739 inhabitants · 3.2 km from the town

2,505 ha reached on 24 Jul

11 %
Audenge 9,596 inhabitants · 6.0 km from the town

1,437 ha reached on 26 Jul

18 %
Saint-Jean-d'Illac 9,616 inhabitants · 6.1 km from the town

573 ha reached on 26 Jul

4.7 %
Sainte-Hélène 3,091 inhabitants · 6.3 km from the town

491 ha reached on 25 Jul

3.8 %
Cestas 16,666 inhabitants · 9.8 km from the town

423 ha reached on 26 Jul

4.2 %
Andernos-les-Bains 12,710 inhabitants · 2.6 km from the town

393 ha reached on 25 Jul

19 %
Marcheprime 5,696 inhabitants · 2.6 km from the town

239 ha reached on 26 Jul

9.7 %
Saint-Médard-en-Jalles 32,910 inhabitants · 14.0 km from the town

172 ha reached on 28 Jul

2.0 %
Salaunes 1,260 inhabitants · 5.0 km from the town

136 ha reached on 26 Jul

3.1 %

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

Coniferous forest69 %
Scrub and transitional woodland26 %
Agricultural areas1.7 %
Mixed forest1.5 %
Artificial surfaces0.8 %
Other natural land0.5 %

Natura 2000 protected area affected: 0 %

LIC Dunes du littoral girondin de la Pointe de Grave au Cap Ferret FR7200678
LIC Zones humides de l'arrière dune du littoral girondin FR7200681

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.

Checked against the press

Checked on 29 September 2026

We checked this page against 4 sources published once the fire was out. This is what they add:

Also known as: Incendie de Gironde · Incendie du Porge · Incendie de Lège-Cap-Ferret; Official area reported: 42,000 ha (the satellite measured 37,363 ha); Declared extinguished: 28 September 2026

Sources

Incendie de Saumos : point de situation ce samedi 1er août à 20h — Services de l'État en Gironde (prefectura), 1 August 2026 · official source
Incendie de Gironde : Point de situation ce vendredi 31 juillet à 20h30 — Services de l'État en Gironde (prefectura), 31 July 2026 · official source
Incendie de Saumos en Gironde : 42 000 hectares parcourus, le feu éteint — feuxdeforet.fr, 28 September 2026
Incendies de juillet 2026 en Gironde : le plus vaste feu de forêt en France depuis 1949 — notre-planete.info, 12 August 2026

Official figures are measured differently from satellite ones and sometimes cover only part of the fire.

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)
22 Jul	34.2 °C	12 %	17 km/h	0.0 mm	High 34
23 Jul	35.0 °C	16 %	15 km/h	0.0 mm	High 34
24 Jul	36.0 °C	14 %	20 km/h	0.5 mm	Very high 40
25 Jul	27.0 °C	47 %	25 km/h	0.7 mm	High 25
26 Jul after	24.4 °C	49 %	20 km/h	0.6 mm	Moderate 18
27 Jul after	26.1 °C	41 %	25 km/h	0.9 mm	Moderate 15
28 Jul after	34.0 °C	29 %	20 km/h	0.0 mm	High 22
29 Jul after	37.2 °C	30 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	High 30
30 Jul after	28.1 °C	55 %	29 km/h	0.1 mm	Moderate 19
31 Jul after	25.4 °C	57 %	33 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 18
1 Aug after	29.4 °C	43 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 19
2 Aug after	34.0 °C	34 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	High 26
3 Aug after	25.5 °C	66 %	30 km/h	0.3 mm	Moderate 15
4 Aug after	27.9 °C	54 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 17

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 15 Jul 2026

After · 1 Aug 2026

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 26 July 2026 the air beside the fire reached 541 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 245: 16 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak541 µg/m³

Days over the guideline4 days

PM10546 µg/m³

Optical depth2.09

WHO 15

202122232425262728

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 · 2,704Every 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 Saumos fire last?: Copernicus dates it between 22 July 2026 and 25 July 2026: 4 days between the first and last image with fire.
How much area did it burn?: The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 37,363 hectares (373.6 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire entered 15 municipalities: Le Porge (8,158 ha, 55 %); Lanton (5,968 ha, 43 %); Saumos (4,816 ha, 84 %); Le Temple (4,445 ha, 62 %); Arès (3,815 ha, 78 %); Lège-Cap-Ferret (3,797 ha, 40 %); Lacanau (2,505 ha, 11 %); Audenge (1,437 ha, 18 %); Saint-Jean-d'Illac (573 ha, 4.7 %); Sainte-Hélène (491 ha, 3.8 %); Cestas (423 ha, 4.2 %); Andernos-les-Bains (393 ha, 19 %).
Did the fire reach a town?: The closest fire to a town centre came within 0.1 km of Saumos. 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 36.0 °C, humidity dropped to 12 % and gusts hit 25 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 40, 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

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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