Burned area
satellite only899ha
Perimeter published by EFFIS (Copernicus).
- Source
- EFFIS (Copernicus)
- Date
- perimeter revised on 7 July 2025
+− cross-check
No official record is matched to this page to compare it with.
RO · Romania · –
Chilia Veche fire, July 2025 Chilia Veche
Out · last detection 7 Jul 2025, 00:03 UTC
The fire started on 5 July 2025 in Chilia Veche, Romania, and satellites saw it burning for 3 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 899 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across a single municipality.
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.
Use this data
Compare with…
Use this data
Fire page data · version 2026-10-24matches the official recordwith caveatssatellite onlymodel
When copying, the sentence is
Tick the figures you want: they make up the lede and the CSV.
Duration by satellite
satellite only3days
5 Jul 2025 to 7 Jul 2025: first and last day with fire on the page.
- Source
- EFFIS (Copernicus) · NASA FIRMS · VIIRS
- Date
- last detection: 7 Jul 2025, 00:03 UTC
+− cross-check
Satellites pass a few times a day and cloud or smoke can hide the fire: a lack of detections is not an official extinction. Each country’s emergency service declares a fire contained or out.
Start
satellite only5 Jul 2025
First day with fire seen by the satellites or the perimeter.
- Source
- EFFIS (Copernicus) · NASA FIRMS · VIIRS
- Date
- 5 Jul 2025
+− cross-check
No official record is matched to this page, so the alert time and the cause are not known here.
Hotspots
satellite only14
VIIRS detections at 375 m. Most intense hotspot: 40 MW.
- Source
- NASA FIRMS · VIIRS (Suomi NPP + NOAA-20)
- Date
- 5 Jul 2025 – 7 Jul 2025
+− cross-check
There is no official record to compare with. Each hotspot is a pixel detected in one satellite pass, not a separate fire.
The worst day
satellite only125MW
Total radiative power on 5 July 2025; hotspots that day: 7.
- Source
- NASA FIRMS · VIIRS (FRP)
- Date
- 5 Jul 2025
+− cross-check
Fire radiative power (FRP) measures the energy the fire gives off when the satellite passes. Added up by day, it compares intensity, not area.
Danger at the start
model40.5FWI · very high
Fire Weather Index (Canadian system) computed by WorldFires for the day the fire started. Consecutive days without rain before: 6.
- Source
- WorldFires calculation (Canadian FWI system)
- Date
- 5 Jul 2025, local noon
- Model
- ERA5 0,25° (ECMWF · Copernicus C3S) · Open-Meteo.com
+− cross-check
This is an index computed from weather model data, not a measurement of the fire nor an official warning. Danger warnings are issued by each country’s authority. Emergency number and official warnings
Weather during the fire
model33.2°C · 33% RH
High of 33.2 °C and minimum humidity of 33% on 7 July 2025; gusts of 45 km/h on 7 July 2025.
- Source
- weather model at the fire’s grid cell
- Date
- 5 Jul 2025 – 7 Jul 2025
- Model
- ERA5 0,25° (ECMWF · Copernicus C3S) · Open-Meteo.com
+− cross-check
These are model values for a cell of about 25 km, not from a weather station: they may differ from what was measured on the ground.
This page’s change log has been kept since 24 October 2026: every night what it publishes is compared and the difference is logged. Anything earlier is reconstructed from each source’s date and marked as reconstructed.
Show
-
· reconstructed weatherWeather and FWI computed from the ERA5 reanalysis
-
· reconstructed perimeterEFFIS (Copernicus) revises the perimeter
What was saved on 24 October 2026
Every night a snapshot of what the page shows is saved. If anything changes, it appears in the list as a log entry.
- Area
- 899 ha
- Dates
- 5 Jul 2025 – 7 Jul 2025
- Name
- Chilia Veche
- Official record
- —
Versioned permanent link
https://worldfires.org/en/fire/chilia-veche-2025-07?v=2026-10-24A version keeps the area, dates, name and official record; the area as it was logged (changes under 2% are not logged). The map, hotspots and weather always show today’s data.
Citation
A lede of about 60 words figures only, no adjectives
CSV for this fire chilia-veche-2025-07.csv · daily, no individual hotspots
| fecha | focos_viirs | frp_mw | tmax_c | tmin_c | hr_min_pct | viento_max_kmh | racha_max_kmh | precip_mm | fwi | clase_fwi | dentro_del_incendio |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025-07-05 | 7 | 125 | 30.3 | 20.9 | 41 | 18.5 | 35.3 | 0 | 40.5 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2025-07-06 | 6 | 46 | 32.5 | 20.2 | 36 | 18.9 | 34.9 | 0 | 43.4 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2025-07-07 | 1 | 1 | 33.2 | 21.2 | 33 | 22.5 | 44.6 | 0 | 52.8 | extremo | 1 |
| 2025-07-08 | 0 | 0 | 32.2 | 20.3 | 37 | 17.9 | 36 | 0 | 47.9 | muy_alto | 0 |
| 2025-07-09 | 0 | 0 | 31.9 | 19.6 | 45 | 18.7 | 38.9 | 0 | 42.7 | muy_alto | 0 |
| 2025-07-10 | 0 | 0 | 28.4 | 18.6 | 35 | 19.2 | 35.3 | 4.1 | 10.5 | bajo | 0 |
It is generated in your browser from this page’s data: one file per fire, aggregated by day and without individual hotspots.
Live widget for your story
It updates itself while the fire is still active and links to this page. Free, with the attribution shown at the bottom.
Sources for this page: EFFIS (Copernicus), NASA FIRMS (VIIRS), ERA5 (ECMWF/Copernicus C3S) · Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0). Open-Meteo.com · How we build fire pages: methodology
- Burnt area
- 899ha
- Copernicus perimeter
- Duration
- 3days
- 5 Jul 2025 – 7 Jul 2025
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- municipalities
- Started on
- 5 Jul
- 2025
- Heat detections
- 14
- in a single hotspot: 40 MW
- Danger at start
- 40
- Very high · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 57MW
- detected power per day, on average
Where it burned
HOTSPOTS BY DAY
5 Jul7 Jul
7 Jul 2025
How it evolved, day by day
5 Jul
6 Jul
7 Jul
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
33°high
45km/h · peak gust
33%lowest humidity
It had gone 6 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 4.1 mm on 10 Jul.
This area had burned before
No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.
How big is it?
London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).
Bucharest boundary: geoBoundaries · World Bank (CC BY 4.0).
Paris boundary: geoBoundaries · Institut national de l'information géographique et forestière (IGN-F) (Etalab Open License 2.0).
Madrid boundary: geoBoundaries · Open Data ESRI, IGN Central Registry of Cartography Area (CC BY 4.0).
This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.
What happened to each town
-
900 ha reached on 5 Jul1.7 %
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
- Agricultural areas94 %
- Broadleaved forest6.0 %
Natura 2000 protected area affected: 100 %
- LIC Delta Dunării ROSCI0065
- ZEPA Delta Dunării și Complexul Razim - Sinoie ROSPA0031
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5 Jul | 30.3 °C | 41 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 6 Jul | 32.5 °C | 36 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 7 Jul | 33.2 °C | 33 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 8 Jul after | 32.2 °C | 37 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 9 Jul after | 31.9 °C | 45 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 10 Jul after | 28.4 °C | 35 % | 35 km/h | 4.1 mm | Low 10 |
Its twins: fires that started in the same weather
It started with an FWI of 40.5, a minimum humidity of 41% and 6 days without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2019: 26.
FWI at the start
40.5
Minimum humidity
41 %
Days without rain
6
this fire
chosen twins
rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar
Outlines of the closest twins
This fire · Chilia Veche fire, July 2025
899 ha
3 days
FWI 40.5
Min. humidity 41 %
Tulcea fire, August 2022
106 ha
1 day
FWI 35.7
Min. humidity 44 %
46 km away, in 2022
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 1.5 mm on 2 Sept.
Izmali fire, August 2026
166 ha
2 days
FWI 47.9
Min. humidity 42 %
18 km away, in 2026
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.
Holo Prystan fire, September 2025
154 ha
1 day
FWI 36.0
Min. humidity 38 %
242 km away, in 2025
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.
Holo Prystan fire, June 2022
216 ha
2 days
FWI 42.1
Min. humidity 34 %
233 km away, in 2022
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 8.4 mm on 24 Jun.
Holo Prystan fire, July 2026
260 ha
1 day
FWI 30.7
Min. humidity 41 %
229 km away, in 2026
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 13.8 mm on 21 Jul.
What happened to them
- 1 day
- median duration
- 208 ha
- median area
- 0 %
- went past 1,000 ha
- 3.7 mm
- rain at the end (median; 15 of 26 had it)
It was 4.3 times larger than the median of its twins and lasted 3 days, against 1 day.
None of its 26 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 11 of 26, 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 3.7 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
4.1 mmfirst rain
10 Jul3 days after it ended
45km/h · max. gust
It was considered over on 7 Jul, and on 10 Jul 4.1 mm fell. We do not know whether the rain or the firefighters put it out. Twins with rain when they ended: 15 of 26, with a median of 3.7 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.
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
↔
Before · 28 Jun 2025
After · 14 Jul 2025
Sentinel-2 did not pass over on that day. Try another date, or use false colour, which is daily.
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 9 July 2025 the air beside the fire reached 11 µg/m³ of PM2.5, but no daily average passed the WHO guideline (15).
PM2.5 peak11 µg/m³
Days over the guideline0 days
PM1021 µg/m³
Optical depth0.41
3 Jul5 Jul7 Jul9 Jul
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 · 14Every 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
- 3,412 haChilia Veche29 March 2025 · 1 day · 18 km away
- 6,700 haChilia Veche31 March 2022 · 4 days · 20 km away
- 3,327 haC.A. Rosetti21 January 2020 · 4 days · 27 km away
- 7,692 haSulina20 March 2022 · 9 days · 32 km away
- 4,487 haSulina28 February 2019 · 11 days · 36 km away
- 6,252 haKiliia Кілійський район24 March 2022 · 9 days · 38 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Chilia Veche fire last?
- Copernicus dates it between 5 July 2025 and 7 July 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 899 hectares (9.0 km²). Official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Chilia Veche (900 ha, 1.7 %).
- Did the fire reach a town?
- The fire started in Chilia Veche and came within 9.2 km of its centre. 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 33.2 °C, humidity dropped to 33 % and gusts hit 45 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 53, 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.
- 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: 26. Their median duration was 1 day and their median area 208 ha; 0 % went past 1,000 ha. None of its 26 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 11 of 26, 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 3.7 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
How we know this
- Perimeter: EFFIS (Copernicus), mapped on satellite imagery.
- Dates from the perimeter: the VIIRS detections inside it did not change them. 14 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.
- Probably a vegetation burn: not counted in the totals.
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.