Overview
- The Direction générale de la sécurité civile et de la gestion des crises said FireWatch became operational Thursday after trials in 2025 and an operational demonstration this summer.
- FireWatch automatically detects active fires from satellite signals, maps fire contours and estimates burned area in near‑real time to speed situational awareness for emergency teams.
- Around 40 local fire and rescue services (SDIS) are connected to the platform and it was used roughly thirty times during major 2026 blazes in places such as the Var and Gironde.
- The system runs simulations of fire propagation and assesses the defendability of buildings so firefighters can preposition resources and target requests for local mitigation like clearing vegetation.
- Project leaders stress a key limit: FireWatch cannot predict human behaviour, which matters because authorities estimate 90–95% of French wildfires are caused by people, and the platform’s rollout will be expanded and evaluated after the record 2026 season.