Fire near Freissinières

44.76°N, 6.55°E · first detected on 20 July at 13:28

What the satellites measured

This fire was tracked from 20 July at 13:28 to 24 July at 16:52, that is 4 days, through 378 satellite detections. The detected extent reaches 1,646 ha.

Detected extent: 1,646 ha
Cumulative power: 8,183 MW
Peak power: 431 MW
Detections: 378

“Detected extent” is not “burned area”: it is the union of the ground footprints of the satellite pixels, and a 375 m pixel counts in full even when only a forest edge is burning. Compared with press figures it is in practice one and a half to three times the area reported. Detections taken at the edge of the scan swath, too coarse to measure anything at all, are excluded. These figures come from thermal satellite detection and are not an official assessment: only the local fire and civil protection authorities are authoritative.

Replay how the fire spread

The map is centred on this fire and loads only its detections. The timeline below covers the whole fire, from the first satellite pass to the last. “1 h” shows what is burning within an hour of the chosen moment : the map then follows the power curve below and empties when it falls. “12 h” stacks twelve hours , as the home map does, where stacking avoids an empty screen between two satellite passes. Both are true, but they say different things.

The detected extent

Outline of the burned area near Freissinières, drawn over satellite imagery — The outline is the union of the ground footprints of every satellite detection of this fire, from the first pass to the last. The background is the EOX cloudless Sentinel-2 mosaic, 2024 vintage: it shows the landscape BEFORE these fires, not the burn scar.

Before, after: the burn scar seen from space

Sentinel-2 satellite image of the area near Freissinières before the fire, on 12 June 2026 — **Before** · 12 June 2026

Sentinel-2 satellite image of the same area near Freissinières after the fire, on 24 July 2026 — **After** · 24 July 2026

Sentinel-2, 10 m resolution. The dates are those of the least cloudy passes available: “after” is not the day after the fire went out, it is the first clear sky that followed. Contains modified Copernicus Sentinel-2 data (2026).

The spread, pass after pass

Freissinières seen by Sentinel-2 on 17 July — One image per usable Sentinel-2 pass, on the same framing throughout so that the comparison means something. The satellite comes back every two to five days and clouds rule out some of the passes: the gaps in the series are days without an image, not days without fire.

Freissinières seen by Sentinel-2 on 22 July — One image per usable Sentinel-2 pass, on the same framing throughout so that the comparison means something. The satellite comes back every two to five days and clouds rule out some of the passes: the gaps in the series are days without an image, not days without fire.

How the radiative power evolved

One point per satellite pass: the sum of the fire radiative power measured over the fire. This is the curve that says whether the fire eased off or picked up again, which no cumulative figure shows. The window covers 30 days; beyond that, clustering would merge two successive fires in the same place.

Fire dynamics

Loading history…

Satellite passes in detail

Pass	Power	Detections	Sensor
30 July at 14:00	3 MW	1	N20
30 July at 13:06	6 MW	1	N21
24 July at 16:52	184 MW	4	Aqua
24 July at 15:33	145 MW	6	N
24 July at 14:57	210 MW	7	N21
24 July at 14:12	117 MW	5	N20
24 July at 13:53	47 MW	3	N
24 July at 13:17	75 MW	3	N21
24 July at 04:28	22 MW	10	N20
24 July at 04:11	34 MW	9	N
24 July at 03:34	53 MW	23	N21
24 July at 02:48	37 MW	22	N20
24 July at 02:28	36 MW	9	N
23 July at 22:34	123 MW	3	Terra
23 July at 20:58	924 MW	4	Terra
23 July at 16:14	145 MW	4	Aqua
23 July at 15:18	58 MW	6	N21
23 July at 14:32	160 MW	10	N20
23 July at 14:12	456 MW	11	N
23 July at 13:38	29 MW	5	N21
23 July at 05:10	19 MW	1	Aqua
23 July at 04:45	7 MW	2	N20
23 July at 04:28	31 MW	9	N
23 July at 03:52	47 MW	14	N21
23 July at 03:05	37 MW	15	N20
23 July at 02:48	36 MW	15	N
22 July at 21:55	39 MW	3	Terra
22 July at 17:14	84 MW	2	Aqua
22 July at 15:38	847 MW	6	Aqua
22 July at 15:36	175 MW	7	N21
22 July at 14:49	141 MW	8	N20
22 July at 14:32	298 MW	17	N
22 July at 13:55	555 MW	14	N21
22 July at 13:10	1,189 MW	17	N20
22 July at 10:50	64 MW	4	Terra
22 July at 04:45	1 MW	1	N
22 July at 04:11	6 MW	2	N21
22 July at 03:26	32 MW	11	N20
22 July at 03:05	39 MW	13	N
22 July at 02:30	35 MW	7	N21
21 July at 21:17	92 MW	4	Terra
21 July at 16:37	66 MW	2	Aqua
21 July at 15:10	8 MW	1	N20
21 July at 14:51	22 MW	3	N
21 July at 14:14	92 MW	3	N21
21 July at 13:28	50 MW	5	N20
21 July at 03:43	13 MW	10	N20
21 July at 03:26	25 MW	10	N
21 July at 02:50	32 MW	7	N21
20 July at 15:59	86 MW	1	Aqua
20 July at 15:27	53 MW	4	N20
20 July at 15:10	99 MW	3	N
20 July at 14:34	199 MW	3	N21
20 July at 13:49	389 MW	4	N20
20 July at 13:28	424 MW	6	N

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