How long did the Bakhmut fire last?

Copernicus dates it between 15 August 2025 and 16 August 2025: 2 days between the first and last image with fire.

How much area did it burn?

The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 461 hectares (4.6 km²). Official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire entered 3 municipalities: Bakhmut (261 ha, 0.2 %); Perevalsk (151 ha, 0.2 %); Antratsyt (46 ha, 0.0 %).

Did the fire reach a town?

The closest fire to a town centre came within 18.7 km of Perevalsk. 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 26.8 °C, humidity dropped to 29 % and gusts hit 40 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 34, 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.

UA · Ukraine · 2025-08-15 → 2025-08-16

Bakhmut fire, 15 August 2025 Бахмутський район · Bakhmut, Perevalsk, Antratsyt

Out · last detection 17 Aug 2025, 09:57 UTC

The fire started on 15 August 2025 in Bakhmut, Ukraine, and satellites saw it burning for 2 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 461 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 3 municipalities.

It is the 127th largest in Donetsk Oblast since 2016 (of 1004 with a page). Number 197 in Ukraine in 2025, of 1359.

The power measured by the satellite is low (7.6 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.

Burnt area: 461ha; Copernicus perimeter
Duration: 2days; 15 Aug 2025 – 16 Aug 2025
Municipalities hit: 3; districts
Started on: 15 Aug; 2025
Heat detections: 9; in a single hotspot: 8 MW
Danger at start: 34; High · FWI index
Average daily power: 5MW; detected power per day, on average

Play back 17 Aug 2025

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 15 Aug16 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

15 Aug 16 Aug 17 Aug

Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.

The weather it burned in

27°high

40km/h · peak gust

29%lowest humidity

It had gone 11 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 2.4 mm on 25 Aug.

This area had burned before

47% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 90 ha in 2023, 146 ha in 2024. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 218 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

Bakhmut Бахмутський район 108,637 inhabitants · 65.5 km from the town where it started

261 ha reached on 15 Aug

0.2 %
Perevalsk Перевальський район 69,738 inhabitants · 18.7 km from the town

151 ha

0.2 %
Antratsyt Антрацитівський район 30,070 inhabitants · 45.7 km from the town

46 ha

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

Other natural land92 %
Mixed forest4.7 %
Agricultural areas3.7 %

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)
15 Aug	24.6 °C	29 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	High 34
16 Aug	26.8 °C	31 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	High 29
17 Aug after	31.2 °C	19 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	High 36
18 Aug after	31.6 °C	18 %	48 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 46
19 Aug after	25.8 °C	27 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	High 36
20 Aug after	28.6 °C	24 %	20 km/h	0.0 mm	High 30
21 Aug after	29.5 °C	21 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	High 36
22 Aug after	31.7 °C	20 %	42 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 44
23 Aug after	29.2 °C	28 %	48 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 45
24 Aug after	23.0 °C	27 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	High 36
25 Aug after	20.9 °C	35 %	49 km/h	2.4 mm	Moderate 14

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 8 Aug 2025

After · 23 Aug 2025

Before After

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 18 August 2025 the air beside the fire reached 46 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 18: 1.2 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak46 µg/m³

Days over the guideline2 days

PM1054 µg/m³

Optical depth0.36

WHO 15

13141516171819

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)

Detections table · 9Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.

⬇ Download CSV Times in UTC. Each detection is a 375 m pixel: a large fire yields hundreds per pass.

Date and time	Satellite	FRP (MW)	Lat	Lon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Ukraine ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Bakhmut fire last?: Copernicus dates it between 15 August 2025 and 16 August 2025: 2 days between the first and last image with fire.
How much area did it burn?: The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 461 hectares (4.6 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire entered 3 municipalities: Bakhmut (261 ha, 0.2 %); Perevalsk (151 ha, 0.2 %); Antratsyt (46 ha, 0.0 %).
Did the fire reach a town?: The closest fire to a town centre came within 18.7 km of Perevalsk. 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 26.8 °C, humidity dropped to 29 % and gusts hit 40 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 34, 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

ДСНС · State Emergency Service ↗

Satellite cross-check

NASA FIRMS ↗
EFFIS · Copernicus ↗

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.

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What really happened?

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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.

Where it burned