Bileća fire, 11 August 2025 Bileća, Ljubinje
The fire started on 11 August 2025 in Bileća, Bosnia & Herzegovina, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 3,663 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 9th largest in Republika Srpska since 2016 (of 391 with a page). Number 2 in Bosnia & Herzegovina in 2025, of 65.
- Burnt area
- 3,663ha
- Copernicus perimeter
- Duration
- 6days
- 11 Aug 2025 – 16 Aug 2025
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- municipalities
- Started on
- 11 Aug
- 2025
- Heat detections
- 119
- in a single hotspot: 48 MW
- Danger at start
- 25
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 668MW
- sum of detected power
Where it burned
How it evolved, day by day
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
It had gone 6 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 2.5 mm on 17 Aug.
This area had burned before
88% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 62 ha in 2017, 83 ha in 2019, 2,694 ha in 2020, 186 ha in 2021, 1,606 ha in 2022. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 3,214 ha that had burned before.
- 2,499 ha Bileća fire, April 2020 3,721 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,241 ha Ljubinje fire, March 2022 1,802 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 353 ha Bileća fire, March 2022 827 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 157 ha Bileća fire, March 2021 159 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 110 ha Bileća fire, March 2020 111 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Bileća where it started2,012 ha reached on 11 Aug3.2 %
-
1,653 ha reached on 18 Aug5.0 %
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
- Sclerophyllous scrub70 %
- Broadleaved forest17 %
- Agricultural areas5.9 %
- Other natural land5.3 %
- Scrub and transitional woodland1.6 %
Land cover inside the perimeter according to Corine Land Cover, as reported by Copernicus.
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 11 Aug | 31.6 °C | 26 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 12 Aug | 31.5 °C | 27 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 13 Aug | 31.1 °C | 24 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 14 Aug | 29.6 °C | 31 % | 23 km/h | 0.6 mm | Moderate 18 |
| 15 Aug | 29.0 °C | 24 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 16 Aug | 28.4 °C | 26 % | 31 km/h | 0.9 mm | Moderate 17 |
| 17 Aug after | 24.2 °C | 39 % | 32 km/h | 2.5 mm | Very low 5 |
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 15 August 2025 the air beside the fire reached 23 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 16: 1.1 times the WHO daily 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)
Detections table · 119Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Bileća fire last?
- Copernicus dates it between 11 August 2025 and 16 August 2025: 6 days between the first and last image with fire.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 3,663 hectares (36.6 km²). Official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Bileća (2,012 ha, 3.2 %); Ljubinje (1,653 ha, 5.0 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 31.6 °C, humidity dropped to 24 % and gusts hit 46 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 25, class High.
- Where does this data come from?
- From the EFFIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Bosnia & Herzegovina (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: 123 · 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 ADM3 (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.