Skip to content
worldfires
IN · India · →

Basna fire, December 2025 Basna, Pithora

Out · last detection 26 Dec 2025, 07:14 UTC

The fire started on 12 December 2025 in Basna, India, and satellites saw it burning for 14 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,553 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 33th largest in Chhattīsgarh since 2016 (of 37 with a page). Number 31 in India in 2025, of 33.

Burnt area
5,553ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
14days
12 Dec 2025 – 25 Dec 2025
Municipalities hit
2
subdistricts
Started on
12 Dec
2025
Heat detections
196
in a single hotspot: 31 MW
Danger at start
14
Moderate · FWI index
Energy released
1.0GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

26 Dec 2025
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 12 Dec25 Dec

How it evolved, day by day

1314151617181920212223242526

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
25km/h · peak gust
28%lowest humidity

It had gone 33 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

47% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,424 ha in 2016, 1,677 ha in 2017, 348 ha in 2019, 329 ha in 2021, 1,550 ha in 2022, 480 ha in 2023, 342 ha in 2024. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,606 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Basna where it started
    4,039 ha reached on 9 Dec
    6.3 %
  2. Pithora
    1,539 ha reached on 10 Dec
    1.4 %

Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the GWIS 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.

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 Dec 25.8 °C 44 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 14
6 Dec 25.8 °C 39 % 17 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
7 Dec 26.9 °C 33 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
8 Dec 27.2 °C 29 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
9 Dec 27.3 °C 31 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
10 Dec 26.8 °C 28 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
11 Dec 26.8 °C 30 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
12 Dec 26.9 °C 31 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
13 Dec 26.4 °C 36 % 18 km/h 0.0 mm High 21
14 Dec 26.1 °C 41 % 16 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
15 Dec 26.3 °C 43 % 14 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
16 Dec 26.4 °C 44 % 13 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
17 Dec 27.3 °C 37 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
18 Dec 26.2 °C 37 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
19 Dec 24.8 °C 42 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
20 Dec 25.0 °C 44 % 18 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
21 Dec 24.9 °C 45 % 16 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
22 Dec 24.6 °C 50 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
23 Dec 25.6 °C 39 % 18 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
24 Dec 26.2 °C 36 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
25 Dec 26.1 °C 40 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
26 Dec after 25.7 °C 40 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
27 Dec after 25.7 °C 41 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
28 Dec after 26.0 °C 39 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
29 Dec after 26.3 °C 37 % 17 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
30 Dec after 27.3 °C 35 % 15 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
31 Dec after 27.0 °C 35 % 14 km/h 0.0 mm High 21
1 Jan after 26.8 °C 35 % 14 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
2 Jan after 27.1 °C 41 % 13 km/h 0.0 mm High 21
3 Jan after 27.0 °C 48 % 17 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
4 Jan after 25.9 °C 52 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
5 Jan after 24.7 °C 50 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
6 Jan after 24.6 °C 33 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
7 Jan after 26.3 °C 31 % 18 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
8 Jan after 25.8 °C 28 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
9 Jan after 25.4 °C 24 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
10 Jan after 24.7 °C 32 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm High 27

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 5 Dec 2025
After · 1 Jan 2026

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 16 December 2025 the air beside the fire reached 186 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 152: 10 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak186 µg/m³
Days over the guideline19 days
PM10201 µg/m³
Optical depth0.97
10111213141516171819202122232425262728
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 · 196Every 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 timeSatelliteFRP (MW)LatLon

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Basna fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 12 December 2025 and 25 December 2025: 14 days between the first and last heat detection of the perimeter.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 5,553 hectares (55.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Basna (4,039 ha, 6.3 %); Pithora (1,539 ha, 1.4 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 27.3 °C, humidity dropped to 28 % and gusts hit 25 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 21, class High.
Where does this data come from?
From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of India (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: 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 112.

Where this data comes from

The perimeter comes from the Copernicus Global Wildfire Information System (GWIS), which rebuilds it from MODIS and VIIRS heat detections and publishes it under CC BY 4.0. It is not measured on imagery as in Europe, so it is an estimate. 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 ADM3 (Open Data Commons Open Database License 1.0). The area per municipality is computed by WorldFires by crossing the perimeter with those boundaries, so it may differ from each country’s official figure.