How long did the Bakhmut fire last?

Copernicus dates it between 15 August 2026 and 15 August 2026: 1 day between the first and last image with fire.

How much area did it burn?

The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 369 hectares (3.7 km²). Official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire entered 2 municipalities: Bakhmut (204 ha, 0.1 %); Popasna (165 ha, 0.1 %).

Did the fire reach a town?

The closest fire to a town centre came within 10.9 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 23.5 °C, humidity dropped to 30 % and gusts hit 32 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.

UA · Ukraine · 2026-08-15 → 2026-08-15

Bakhmut fire, 15 August 2026 Бахмутський район · Bakhmut, Popasna

Out · last measured on 15 Aug 2026

The fire started on 15 August 2026 in Bakhmut, Ukraine, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 369 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 180th largest in Donetsk Oblast since 2016 (of 1004 with a page). Number 216 in Ukraine in 2026, of 984.

Burnt area: 369ha; Copernicus perimeter
Duration: 1day; 15 Aug 2026 – 15 Aug 2026
Municipalities hit: 2; districts
Started on: 15 Aug; 2026
Heat detections: 17; in a single hotspot: 26 MW
Danger at start: 20; Moderate · FWI index

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 15 Aug15 Aug

The weather it burned in

24°high

32km/h · peak gust

30%lowest humidity

It had gone 16 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

9% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 30 ha in 2024, 17 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 34 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

Bakhmut Бахмутський район 108,637 inhabitants · 22.0 km from the town where it started

204 ha reached on 13 Aug

0.1 %
Popasna Попаснянський район 40,204 inhabitants · 10.9 km from the town

165 ha reached on 13 Aug

0.1 %

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 areas59 %
Other natural land37 %
Mixed forest3.0 %
Other land cover0.8 %

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	23.5 °C	30 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 20
16 Aug after	27.4 °C	34 %	18 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 17
17 Aug after	30.0 °C	30 %	21 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 19
18 Aug after	31.9 °C	18 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	High 29
19 Aug after	28.0 °C	44 %	44 km/h	0.7 mm	Moderate 21
20 Aug after	26.5 °C	33 %	30 km/h	0.5 mm	Moderate 20
21 Aug after	32.0 °C	27 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	High 26
22 Aug after	34.3 °C	23 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	High 29
23 Aug after	34.5 °C	19 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	High 35
24 Aug after	26.5 °C	27 %	41 km/h	0.0 mm	High 36
25 Aug after	26.2 °C	27 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	High 32

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 8 Aug 2026

After · 22 Aug 2026

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 2026 the air beside the fire reached 27 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 16: 1.1 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak27 µg/m³

Days over the guideline1 day

PM1032 µg/m³

Optical depth0.34

WHO 15

131415161718

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 · 17Every 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 2026 and 15 August 2026: 1 day between the first and last image with fire.
How much area did it burn?: The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 369 hectares (3.7 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire entered 2 municipalities: Bakhmut (204 ha, 0.1 %); Popasna (165 ha, 0.1 %).
Did the fire reach a town?: The closest fire to a town centre came within 10.9 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 23.5 °C, humidity dropped to 30 % and gusts hit 32 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

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