Bakhmut fire, 5 September 2025 Бахмутський район · Bakhmut, Popasna
The fire started on 5 September 2025 in Bakhmut, Ukraine, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 147 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 636th largest in Donetsk Oblast since 2016 (of 1004 with a page). Number 921 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
- 147ha
- Copernicus perimeter
- Duration
- 1day
- 5 Sept 2025 – 5 Sept 2025
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- districts
- Started on
- 5 Sept
- 2025
- Danger at start
- 20
- Moderate · FWI index
Where it burned
The weather it burned in
It had gone 2 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
62% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 91 ha in 2024.
What happened to each town
-
110 ha0.1 %
-
38 ha0.0 %
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 land60 %
- Agricultural areas30 %
- Mixed forest9.3 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5 Sept | 21.6 °C | 42 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 6 Sept after | 24.5 °C | 32 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 7 Sept after | 25.9 °C | 39 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 8 Sept after | 27.2 °C | 39 % | 38 km/h | 0.5 mm | High 28 |
| 9 Sept after | 28.1 °C | 30 % | 45 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 33 |
| 10 Sept after | 24.6 °C | 29 % | 50 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 11 Sept after | 23.7 °C | 23 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 12 Sept after | 24.7 °C | 27 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 13 Sept after | 20.8 °C | 28 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 14 Sept after | 24.9 °C | 27 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 15 Sept after | 25.3 °C | 24 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
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 · CopernicusOn 5 September 2025 the air beside the fire reached 13 µg/m³ of PM2.5, but no daily average passed the WHO guideline (15).
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
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Bakhmut fire last?
- Copernicus dates it between 5 September 2025 and 5 September 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 147 hectares (1.5 km²). Official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Bakhmut (110 ha, 0.1 %); Popasna (38 ha, 0.0 %).
- Did the fire reach a town?
- The closest fire to a town centre came within 11.5 km of Popasna. 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 21.6 °C, humidity dropped to 42 % and gusts hit 31 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 20, class Moderate.
- 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
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.