Dasht-e-Azadegan fire, July 2026 Dasht-e-Azadegan
The fire started on 25 July 2026 in Dasht-e-Azadegan, Iran, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 1,342 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 21th largest in Khuzestan since 2016 (of 40 with a page). Number 7 in Iran in 2026, of 16.
- Burnt area
- 1,342ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 4days
- 25 Jul 2026 – 28 Jul 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- counties
- Started on
- 25 Jul
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 24
- in a single hotspot: 112 MW
- Danger at start
- 88
- Very extreme · FWI index
- Energy released
- 573MW
- 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 16 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
44% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 311 ha in 2018, 324 ha in 2021. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 588 ha that had burned before.
What happened to each town
-
Dasht-e-Azadegan where it started1,232 ha0.6 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 25 Jul | 46.0 °C | 7 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 88 |
| 26 Jul | 46.5 °C | 7 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 107 |
| 27 Jul | 46.8 °C | 7 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 125 |
| 28 Jul | 46.2 °C | 11 % | 47 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 81 |
| 29 Jul after | 47.3 °C | 11 % | 21 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 61 |
| 30 Jul after | 48.7 °C | 8 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 67 |
| 31 Jul after | 48.7 °C | 10 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 73 |
| 1 Aug after | 49.7 °C | 8 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 67 |
| 2 Aug after | 49.1 °C | 10 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 67 |
| 3 Aug after | 49.2 °C | 9 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 71 |
| 4 Aug after | 48.8 °C | 11 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 67 |
| 5 Aug after | 49.2 °C | 13 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 66 |
| 6 Aug after | 48.4 °C | 8 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 70 |
| 7 Aug after | 48.2 °C | 9 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 70 |
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 30 July 2026 the air beside the fire reached 220 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 134: 8.9 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 · 24Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 9,182 haHoveyzehMay 2022 · 35 days · 16 km away
- 2,973 haHoveyzehAugust 2021 · 22 days · 18 km away
- 6,107 haHoveyzeh8 September 2018 · 33 days · 19 km away
- 2,797 haHoveyzeh15 March 2018 · 3 days · 20 km away
- 3,138 haHoveyzehJanuary 2016 · 3 days · 21 km away
- 3,563 haHoveyzeh16 March 2025 · 4 days · 28 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Dasht-e-Azadegan fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 25 July 2026 and 28 July 2026: 4 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 1,342 hectares (13.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Dasht-e-Azadegan (1,232 ha, 0.6 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 46.8 °C, humidity dropped to 7 % and gusts hit 47 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 125, class Very extreme.
- Where does this data come from?
- From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Iran (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: 125
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.