Skip to content
worldfires
en
RO · Romania · –

C.A. Rosetti fire, 6 March 2025 C.A. Rosetti, Chilia Veche, Crișan

Out · last detection 7 Mar 2025, 23:07 UTC

The fire started on 6 March 2025 in C.A. Rosetti, Romania, and satellites saw it burning for 3 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 1,247 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 3 municipalities.

This record is fire in the reed beds of the Danube Delta, not a forest fire. Thousands of hectares of reed burn in the delta every year, mostly between January and April, and many of these burns are deliberate. That is why it is left out of the fire rankings.

The power measured by the satellite is low (24.9 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Străoane · 2022Artsyi · 2022Sulina · 2022C.A. Rosetti · 2020

Burnt area
1,247ha
Copernicus perimeter
Duration
3days
6 Mar 2025 – 8 Mar 2025
Municipalities hit
3
municipalities
Started on
6 Mar
2025
Heat detections
20
in a single hotspot: 25 MW
Danger at start
6
Low · FWI index
Average daily power
112MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 6 Mar8 Mar
7 Mar 2025

How it evolved, day by day

6 Mar 2025 · 71 MW · 8 7 Mar 2025 · 153 MW · 12
6 Mar 7 Mar

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

The weather it burned in

19°high
24km/h · peak gust
24%lowest humidity

It had gone 3 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.3 mm on 13 Mar.

This area had burned before

78% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 46 ha in 2017, 1 ha in 2019, 252 ha in 2020, 937 ha in 2022. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 970 ha that had burned before.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 0.8% of the area of London (12 km² against 1,583 km²).

London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).

This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.

What happened to each town

  1. C.A. Rosetti 636 inhabitants · 8.4 km from the centre where it started
    750 ha reached on 6 Mar
    2.8 %
  2. Chilia Veche 1,728 inhabitants · 14.3 km from the centre
    469 ha reached on 6 Mar
    0.9 %
  3. Crișan 1,092 inhabitants · 3.5 km from the centre
    25 ha reached on 6 Mar
    0.1 %

Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the official perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance runs from the point marking the centre of each area to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.

What burned

  • Other natural land99 %
  • Other land cover0.7 %

Natura 2000 protected area affected: 100 %

Natura 2000 sites (European Environment Agency, 2024 release) crossed by the perimeter.

Land cover inside the perimeter according to Corine Land Cover, as reported by Copernicus.

People and buildings inside the perimeter

GHSL 2025
Built-up area< 0.1 ha
Residents< 20

Inside the perimeter there was no noticeable built-up land and almost nobody lived there (GHSL 2025, satellite-based estimate).

This is an estimate on 100 m cells, made from satellite imagery and census data: it does not mean that homes burned or that anyone was harmed. The perimeter also contains land that never burned. The GHSL 2025 epoch is a projection made from 2020 and earlier data.

Source: Global Human Settlement Layer (GHS-BUILT-S and GHS-POP R2023A), European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC), © European Union, CC BY 4.0. Sum inside the perimeter computed by WorldFires. human-settlement.emergency.copernicus.eu

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)
6 Mar 19.0 °C 24 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Low 6
7 Mar 17.7 °C 33 % 14 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 5
8 Mar 16.7 °C 33 % 17 km/h 0.0 mm Low 6
9 Mar after 15.2 °C 48 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Low 8
10 Mar after 11.8 °C 65 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 5
11 Mar after 18.5 °C 44 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Low 9
12 Mar after 18.5 °C 58 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Low 9
13 Mar after 17.0 °C 50 % 57 km/h 1.3 mm Low 10

Its twins: fires that started in the same weather

It started with an FWI of 6.3, a minimum humidity of 24% and 3 days without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2019: 16.

FWI at the start 6.3
Minimum humidity 24 %
Days without rain 3
this fire chosen twins rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar

Outlines of the closest twins

Străoane fire, April 2022
122 ha 2 days FWI 3.7 Min. humidity 24 % 205 km away, in 2022

First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 1.3 mm on 7 Apr.

See its page Compare with this fire

What happened to them

1 day
median duration
175 ha
median area
6 %
went past 1,000 ha
1.7 mm
rain at the end (median; 13 of 16 had it)

It was 7.1 times larger than the median of its twins and lasted 3 days, against 1 day.

None of its 16 twins burned more. The weather on the first day does not explain everything: the wind in the following days, the fuel and the firefighting also count. In 3 of 16, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 1.7 mm.

This is a bank of analogues: it shows what usually happens, not what will happen. With fewer than 15 twins we give no figures. How we calculate it

How it ended

1.3 mmfirst rain
13 Mar5 days after it ended
24km/h · max. gust

It was considered over on 8 Mar, and on 13 Mar 1.3 mm fell. We do not know whether the rain or the firefighters put it out. Twins with rain when they ended: 13 of 16, with a median of 1.7 mm.

Weather on this page: Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Climate Change Service (ERA5)

How a twin is chosen

  • Same area: fires that have already ended, less than 250 km from this one, since 2019.
  • Same start: we compare the FWI on the first day, the minimum humidity that day and the run of days without rain before it. The slider sets how much they may differ.
  • Only pages with final weather data (ERA5 reanalysis) calculated in the same way as this fire’s; agricultural and grass burns and pages with data under review are left out.
  • Fires burning at the same time as this one (a week before or after) are left out: they share the same spell of weather and do not count as a precedent.
  • They are sorted by similarity, and the outlines of the first five are drawn.

How we calculate it

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 27 Feb 2025
After · 15 Mar 2025

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 9 March 2025 the air beside the fire reached 54 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 24: 1.6 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak54 µg/m³
Days over the guideline6 days
PM1069 µg/m³
Optical depth0.37
4 Mar6 Mar8 Mar10 Mar
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 · 20Every 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

Other fires nearby

All fires in Romania

Frequently asked questions

How long did the C.A. Rosetti fire last?
Copernicus dates it between 6 March 2025 and 8 March 2025: 3 days between the first and last image with fire.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 1,247 hectares (12.5 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 3 municipalities: C.A. Rosetti (750 ha, 2.8 %); Chilia Veche (469 ha, 0.9 %); Crișan (25 ha, 0.1 %).
Did the fire reach a town?
The fire came within 3.5 km of the centre of Crișan, the closest of the areas it touched. That is the distance from the perimeter, or the nearest hotspot, to the point marking the centre; it does not mean it entered the houses.
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 19.0 °C, humidity dropped to 24 % and gusts hit 24 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 6, class Low.
Where does this data come from?
From the EFFIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Romania (geoBoundaries). It is not an official report.
How did the fires that started in similar weather in this area end?
Fires less than 250 km away that started since 2019 with a similar FWI, humidity and dry spell: 16. Their median duration was 1 day and their median area 175 ha; 6 % went past 1,000 ha. None of its 16 twins burned more. The weather on the first day does not explain everything: the wind in the following days, the fuel and the firefighting also count. In 3 of 16, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 1.7 mm.

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 · Emergency number and official warnings

Satellite cross-check

History of this page Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.

No changes since 24 October 2026.

RSS Changes to this page With cross-checks and a citable version

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.

How we know this
  • Perimeter: EFFIS (Copernicus), mapped on satellite imagery.
  • Dates from the perimeter: the VIIRS detections inside it did not change them. 20 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
  • We have not matched this page with any official record.
  • Weather: Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, in cells of about 25 km.
  • Built-up area and population come from the JRC Global Human Settlement Layer (epoch 2025, 100 m cells), summed inside the perimeter: an estimate of what was there, not a damage count.
  • Probably a vegetation burn: not counted in the totals.

How we build fire pages: methodology

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 (Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)). 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.