CALAFAT fire, June 2025 CALAFAT, CIUPERCENII NOI
The fire started on 20 June 2025 in CALAFAT, Romania, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 203 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 6th largest in Dolj since 2016 (of 12 with a page). Number 71 in Romania in 2025, of 137.
- Burnt area
- 203ha
- Copernicus perimeter
- Duration
- 1day
- 20 Jun 2025 – 20 Jun 2025
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- municipalities
- Started on
- 20 Jun
- 2025
- Heat detections
- 10
- in a single hotspot: 57 MW
- Danger at start
- 59
- Extreme · FWI index
- Energy released
- 316MW
- 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 10 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.0 mm on 27 Jun.
This area had burned before
2% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 4 ha in 2023.
What happened to each town
-
CALAFAT where it started198 ha reached on 20 Jun1.4 %
-
CIUPERCENII NOI 5,003 inhabitants · 4.4 km from the town5 ha reached on 20 Jun0.0 %
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
- Agricultural areas68 %
- Other natural land26 %
- Broadleaved forest5.9 %
Natura 2000 protected area affected: 100 %
- ZEPA Calafat - Ciuperceni - Dunăre ROSPA0013
- LIC Ciuperceni - Desa ROSAC0039
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.
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20 Jun | 33.9 °C | 13 % | 55 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 59 |
| 21 Jun after | 30.9 °C | 15 % | 32 km/h | 0.1 mm | Very high 48 |
| 22 Jun after | 33.4 °C | 10 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 23 Jun after | 36.7 °C | 6 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 50 |
| 24 Jun after | 38.4 °C | 15 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 61 |
| 25 Jun after | 40.1 °C | 6 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 26 Jun after | 42.0 °C | 10 % | 35 km/h | 0.1 mm | Extreme 61 |
| 27 Jun after | 39.9 °C | 20 % | 40 km/h | 1.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
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 20 June 2025 the air beside the fire reached 10 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)
Detections table · 10Every 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 CALAFAT fire last?
- Copernicus dates it between 20 June 2025 and 20 June 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 203 hectares (2.0 km²). Official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: CALAFAT (198 ha, 1.4 %); CIUPERCENII NOI (5 ha, 0.0 %).
- Did the fire reach a town?
- The closest fire to a town centre came within 4.4 km of CIUPERCENII NOI. 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 33.9 °C, humidity dropped to 13 % and gusts hit 55 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 59, class Extreme.
- 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.
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
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.