Gacko fire, 18 January 2020 Gacko
The fire started on 18 January 2020 in Gacko, Bosnia & Herzegovina, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 105 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 374th largest in Republika Srpska since 2016 (of 391 with a page). Number 179 in Bosnia & Herzegovina in 2020, of 183.
The power measured by the satellite is low (5.2 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.
- Burnt area
- 105ha
- Copernicus perimeter
- Duration
- 1day
- 18 Jan 2020 – 18 Jan 2020
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- municipalities
- Started on
- 18 Jan
- 2020
- Heat detections
- 6
- in a single hotspot: 5 MW
- Danger at start
- 0
- Very low · FWI index
- Energy released
- 24MW
- 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 12 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 3.8 mm on 19 Jan.
This area had burned before
No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.
What happened to each town
-
Gacko where it started105 ha reached on 18 Jan0.1 %
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
- Scrub and transitional woodland80 %
- Other natural land14 %
- Broadleaved forest5.6 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 18 Jan | 1.8 °C | 54 % | 20 km/h | 0.1 mm | Very low 0 |
| 19 Jan after | -0.8 °C | 81 % | 24 km/h | 3.8 mm | Very low 0 |
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.
Detections table · 6Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 3,001 haKalinovik18 March 2020 · 6 days · 17 km away
- 4,021 haBilećaAugust 2026 · 12 days · 22 km away
- 3,843 haKalinovikJanuary 2024 · 5 days · 24 km away
- 4,094 haNevesinje16 August 2026 · 1 day · 29 km away
- 4,594 haBileća15 March 2022 · 1 day · 37 km away
- 3,663 haBileća11 August 2025 · 6 days · 39 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Gacko fire last?
- Copernicus dates it between 18 January 2020 and 18 January 2020: 1 day between the first and last image with fire.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 105 hectares (1.0 km²). Official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Gacko (105 ha, 0.1 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 1.8 °C, humidity dropped to 54 % and gusts hit 20 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 0, class Very low.
- Where does this data come from?
- From the EFFIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Bosnia & Herzegovina (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: 123 · 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 ADM3 (Public Domain). 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.