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Bakhmut fire, 14 August 2025 Бахмутський район · Bakhmut, Shakhtarsk

Out · last measured on 14 Aug 2025

The fire started on 14 August 2025 in Bakhmut, Ukraine, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 390 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 170th largest in Donetsk Oblast since 2016 (of 1004 with a page). Number 269 in Ukraine in 2025, of 1359.

We have the Copernicus perimeter for this fire, but not yet its hotspots: NASA publishes the yearly hotspot archive only once the year closes. The page picks it up automatically when it is available.

Burnt area
390ha
Copernicus perimeter
Duration
1day
14 Aug 2025 – 14 Aug 2025
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
14 Aug
2025
Danger at start
32
High · FWI index

Where it burned

The weather it burned in

26°high
37km/h · peak gust
26%lowest humidity

It had gone 10 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

11% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 43 ha in 2023.

What happened to each town

  1. Bakhmut Бахмутський район 108,637 inhabitants · 51.0 km from the town where it started
    340 ha reached on 31 Jul
    0.2 %
  2. Shakhtarsk Шахтарський район 18,952 inhabitants · 35.1 km from the town
    48 ha reached on 31 Jul
    0.0 %

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

  • Agricultural areas92 %
  • Other natural land6.3 %
  • Mixed forest1.3 %
  • Artificial surfaces0.5 %

Land cover inside the perimeter as reported by Copernicus EFFIS (outside the Corine Land Cover area).

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)
14 Aug 26.4 °C 26 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
15 Aug after 24.4 °C 30 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
16 Aug after 26.7 °C 32 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
17 Aug after 31.3 °C 19 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
18 Aug after 31.4 °C 18 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
19 Aug after 25.7 °C 29 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
20 Aug after 28.7 °C 26 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
21 Aug after 29.3 °C 21 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
22 Aug after 31.7 °C 20 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
23 Aug after 28.9 °C 30 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
24 Aug after 23.0 °C 27 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 36

Before and after, from space

Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.

Before · 7 Aug 2025
After · 21 Aug 2025

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 · Copernicus

On 17 August 2025 the air beside the fire reached 37 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 22: 1.5 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak37 µg/m³
Days over the guideline1 day
PM1046 µg/m³
Optical depth0.36
121314151617
Good Fair Moderate Poor Very poor Extremely poor

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)

Other fires nearby

All fires in Ukraine ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Bakhmut fire last?
Copernicus dates it between 14 August 2025 and 14 August 2025: 1 day between the first and last image with fire.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 390 hectares (3.9 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Bakhmut (340 ha, 0.2 %); Shakhtarsk (48 ha, 0.0 %).
Did the fire reach a town?
The closest fire to a town centre came within 35.1 km of Shakhtarsk. 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 26.4 °C, humidity dropped to 26 % and gusts hit 37 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 32, class High.
Where does this data come from?
From the EFFIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Ukraine (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: 101 · 112

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
What do you think is wrong?

We will only use your email to reply about this report. Privacy. This is not an emergency service: if there is a fire now, call 101 · 112.

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 ADM2 (Public Domain). 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.