Calamity
highFireCalamity Score: 52

Large Wildfire

14h agoWollongong city centreAustraliaSource: firms

28 fire pixels detected · FRP: 78 MW · ~3.9 km²

Geographic Context

This fire event occurred near Wollongong city centre (approximately 3 km away) in Australia, a region where extreme heat events and eucalyptus forests create conditions highly conducive to wildfire spread. An estimated 263.5K people live within 35 km of the event location, placing this in the "severe" population impact tier.

Event Assessment

This event is a wildfire detected across 28 satellite thermal detection pixels, indicating an active fire zone. Calamity.live has classified it as "high" severity with a severity value of 43.682. The computed Calamity Score is 52 out of 100, reflecting a moderate-impact event. The primary scoring components are: population (70), cascading (64), intensity (40). Data for this event was sourced from firms, one of the 250 scientific monitoring sources aggregated by Calamity.live.

Regional Monitoring Context

Australia has a documented history of fire events. Wildfire activity in the region is monitored through NASA FIRMS (Fire Information for Resource Management System), which provides near-real-time active fire data from MODIS and VIIRS satellites. Fire behavior is influenced by vegetation type, moisture content, wind patterns, and terrain — all factors that determine whether an initial ignition becomes a major event.

Cascade Risk Analysis

This event may trigger secondary hazards through cascade effects. Cascade detection is an automated process that evaluates how primary disasters can trigger secondary events — for example, earthquakes triggering landslides, or volcanic eruptions causing lahars and pyroclastic flows. These secondary hazards can sometimes pose a greater threat than the initial event, particularly in mountainous terrain or densely populated areas.

Event Data

TypeFire
Severityhigh
Severity Value43.682
Calamity Score52 / 100
Confidence84%
Coordinates-34.4577, 150.8823
Nearest CityWollongong city centre (3 km)
Population Exposed263.5K within 35 km
Impact Tiersevere
Timestamp2026-07-04T17:50:03.040Z

Score Breakdown

40
intensity
70
population
64
cascading
20
historical

Technical Details

Brightness342.85
Frp78.41
PixelCount28
Confidencenominal
Area Km23.9200000000000004

Cascade Risks

cascade

Safety Information

If a wildfire is approaching: follow evacuation orders immediately. Do not wait to see the fire. Close all windows and doors, remove combustible materials from around your home, and have an emergency go-bag ready. Air quality can deteriorate rapidly even at distance from the fire front — monitor local air quality advisories.

This data is aggregated algorithmically from scientific sources. Not a replacement for official emergency warnings.

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Calamity.live data shows a fire event with CalamityScore 52/100, near Wollongong city centre (Australia), based on data from firms. Source: Calamity.live, a platform aggregating real-time data from 197 scientific monitoring sources.