1. An automated fire detection and mapping method comprising: receiving selected multi-spectral satellite images including pixels in each image having wavelength bands selected from the group of B, G, R, NIR and SWIR bands; comparing the selected bands of each pixel with a predetermined threshold representative of a low false alarm rate for a set of pixel test images; and determining that a fire is detected if the predetermined threshold comparison is met wherein the selected bands includes the B, G, R and NIR bands or G, R, NIR and SWIR bands.