Sigean fire, September 2017 Sigean, Port-la-Nouvelle, Roquefort-des-Corbières
The fire started on 6 September 2017 in Sigean, France, and satellites saw it burning for 2 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 312 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 4 municipalities.
It is the 9th largest in Aude since 2016 (of 15 with a page). Number 13 in France in 2017, of 27.
The power measured by the satellite is low (8.0 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
- 312ha
- Copernicus perimeter
- Duration
- 2days
- 6 Sept 2017 – 7 Sept 2017
- Municipalities hit
- 4
- communes
- Started on
- 6 Sept
- 2017
- Heat detections
- 7
- in a single hotspot: 8 MW
- Danger at start
- 39
- Very high · FWI index
- Energy released
- 39MW
- sum of detected power
Where it burned
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
It had gone 5 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.4 mm on 15 Sept.
This area had burned before
No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.
What happened to each town
-
158 ha reached on 7 Sept3.9 %
-
Port-la-Nouvelle 5,852 inhabitants · 4.1 km from the town66 ha reached on 7 Sept1.8 %
-
Roquefort-des-Corbières 1,051 inhabitants · 2.6 km from the town50 ha reached on 7 Sept1.1 %
-
La Palme 1,995 inhabitants · 1.3 km from the town38 ha1.2 %
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 scrub87 %
- Agricultural areas6.1 %
- Coniferous forest5.1 %
- Mixed forest1.3 %
Natura 2000 protected area affected: 100 %
- ZEPA Étang de Lapalme FR9112006
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 336 ha was recorded in Sigean on 6 September 2017 (the satellite measured 312 ha). The record has no coordinates, so it was matched by municipality and date.
- Sigean 6 September 2017 · 17:40 336 ha
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6 Sept | 27.2 °C | 41 % | 64 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 7 Sept | 23.6 °C | 36 % | 68 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 8 Sept after | 26.5 °C | 32 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 9 Sept after | 19.6 °C | 52 % | 54 km/h | 0.6 mm | High 28 |
| 10 Sept after | 21.6 °C | 43 % | 83 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 11 Sept after | 24.1 °C | 42 % | 66 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 12 Sept after | 23.7 °C | 38 % | 61 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 13 Sept after | 28.1 °C | 37 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 23 |
| 14 Sept after | 23.3 °C | 45 % | 75 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 15 Sept after | 18.9 °C | 43 % | 41 km/h | 1.4 mm | Moderate 15 |
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.
The smoke
CAMS · CopernicusOn 9 September 2017 the air beside the fire reached 12 µg/m³ of PM2.5, but no daily average passed the WHO guideline (15).
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 · 7Every 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 Sigean fire last?
- Copernicus dates it between 6 September 2017 and 7 September 2017: 2 days between the first and last image with fire.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 312 hectares (3.1 km²). Official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 4 municipalities: Sigean (158 ha, 3.9 %); Port-la-Nouvelle (66 ha, 1.8 %); Roquefort-des-Corbières (50 ha, 1.1 %); La Palme (38 ha, 1.2 %).
- Did the fire reach a town?
- The closest fire to a town centre came within 1.3 km of La Palme. 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 27.2 °C, humidity dropped to 36 % and gusts hit 68 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
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.