Chitinsky District fire, 13 April 2025 Chitinsky District
The fire started on 13 April 2025 in Chitinsky District, Russia, and satellites saw it burning for 13 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 8,653 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 143th largest in Zabaykalsky Krai since 2016 (of 470 with a page). Number 78 in Russia in 2025, of 249.
- Burnt area
- 8,653ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 13days
- 13 Apr 2025 – 25 Apr 2025
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- districts
- Started on
- 13 Apr
- 2025
- Heat detections
- 471
- in a single hotspot: 522 MW
- Danger at start
- 9
- Low · FWI index
- Energy released
- 16.7GW
- 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 more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 5.0 mm on 29 Apr.
This area had burned before
50% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 4,422 ha in 2020, 136 ha in 2022, 95 ha in 2024. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 4,353 ha that had burned before.
- 2,220 ha Chitinsky District fire, April 2020 5,140 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 829 ha Chitinsky District fire, April 2020 7,184 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 519 ha Chitinsky District fire, April 2020 3,992 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Chitinsky District where it started8,700 ha reached on 13 Apr0.6 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 13 Apr | 13.5 °C | 25 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 9 |
| 14 Apr | 19.1 °C | 15 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 14 |
| 15 Apr | 16.0 °C | 16 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 14 |
| 16 Apr | 12.6 °C | 34 % | 45 km/h | 0.7 mm | Moderate 11 |
| 17 Apr | 7.2 °C | 18 % | 56 km/h | 2.4 mm | Very low 3 |
| 18 Apr | 11.7 °C | 14 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 6 |
| 19 Apr | 15.0 °C | 15 % | 47 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 15 |
| 20 Apr | 6.4 °C | 18 % | 74 km/h | 1.8 mm | Low 7 |
| 21 Apr | 4.0 °C | 13 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 8 |
| 22 Apr | 5.8 °C | 30 % | 41 km/h | 1.0 mm | Very low 4 |
| 23 Apr | 5.3 °C | 18 % | 71 km/h | 0.4 mm | Moderate 14 |
| 24 Apr | 7.1 °C | 15 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 12 |
| 25 Apr | 11.2 °C | 18 % | 44 km/h | 0.3 mm | Moderate 16 |
| 26 Apr after | 2.7 °C | 19 % | 64 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 27 Apr after | 8.2 °C | 21 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 15 |
| 28 Apr after | 19.4 °C | 12 % | 62 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 29 Apr after | 3.0 °C | 50 % | 77 km/h | 5.0 mm | Very low 2 |
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 24 April 2025 the air beside the fire reached 471 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 195: 13 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 · 471Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 7,184 haChitinsky District23 April 2020 · 4 days · 8 km away
- 259,015 haChitinsky District2 May 2025 · 46 days · 27 km away
- 15,278 haChitinsky District17 May 2024 · 20 days · 32 km away
- 53,650 haChitinsky District1 May 2025 · 29 days · 35 km away
- 8,304 haTungokochensky District15 April 2025 · 14 days · 36 km away
- 7,972 haChitinsky District23 April 2020 · 18 days · 38 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Chitinsky District fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 13 April 2025 and 25 April 2025: 13 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 8,653 hectares (86.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Chitinsky District (8,700 ha, 0.6 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 19.1 °C, humidity dropped to 13 % and gusts hit 74 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 16, class Moderate.
- Where does this data come from?
- From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Russia (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 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 ADM2 (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.