Gacko fire, August 2026 Nevesinje, Gacko
The fire started on 9 August 2026 in Gacko, Bosnia & Herzegovina, and satellites saw it burning for 2 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 1,857 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 23th largest in Republika Srpska since 2016 (of 391 with a page). Number 8 in Bosnia & Herzegovina in 2026, of 94.
The power measured by the satellite is low (24.4 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
- 1,857ha
- Copernicus perimeter
- Duration
- 2days
- 9 Aug 2026 – 10 Aug 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- municipalities
- Started on
- 9 Aug
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 126
- in a single hotspot: 24 MW
- Danger at start
- 18
- Moderate · FWI index
- Energy released
- 63MW
- 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.
This area had burned before
74% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 245 ha in 2016, 75 ha in 2017, 626 ha in 2019, 523 ha in 2020, 39 ha in 2021, 45 ha in 2022, 1,079 ha in 2024, 272 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 1,373 ha that had burned before.
- 880 ha Kalinovik fire, January 2024 3,843 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 505 ha Nevesinje fire, March 2019 508 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 286 ha Nevesinje fire, March 2020 361 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 272 ha Nevesinje fire, December 2025 544 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 200 ha Nevesinje fire, December 2016 275 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 139 ha Gacko fire, January 2024 2,198 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 107 ha Nevesinje fire, January 2020 153 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 75 ha Nevesinje fire, March 2019 131 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
1,495 ha reached on 14 Aug1.5 %
-
Gacko where it started364 ha reached on 10 Aug0.5 %
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
- Other natural land76 %
- Scrub and transitional woodland11 %
- Agricultural areas7.5 %
- Broadleaved forest5.8 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 9 Aug | 27.2 °C | 40 % | 33 km/h | 0.2 mm | Moderate 18 |
| 10 Aug | 29.8 °C | 29 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 11 Aug after | 30.1 °C | 27 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 23 |
| 12 Aug after | 27.8 °C | 36 % | 49 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 26 |
| 13 Aug after | 27.2 °C | 32 % | 40 km/h | 0.2 mm | High 26 |
| 14 Aug after | 26.5 °C | 31 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 15 Aug after | 26.9 °C | 32 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 23 |
| 16 Aug after | 27.0 °C | 36 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 17 Aug after | 26.8 °C | 33 % | 41 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 27 |
| 18 Aug after | 23.2 °C | 42 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 19 Aug after | 27.3 °C | 29 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 20 Aug after | 28.3 °C | 31 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
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 17 August 2026 the air beside the fire reached 22 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 17: 1.2 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 · 126Every 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 · 5 km away
- 3,843 haKalinovikJanuary 2024 · 5 days · 8 km away
- 4,094 haNevesinje16 August 2026 · 1 day · 11 km away
- 4,021 haBilećaSeptember 2026 · 1 day · 27 km away
- 4,538 haIstočni MostarApril 2020 · 6 days · 35 km away
- 3,663 haBileća11 August 2025 · 6 days · 35 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Gacko fire last?
- Copernicus dates it between 9 August 2026 and 10 August 2026: 2 days between the first and last image with fire.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 1,857 hectares (18.6 km²). Official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Nevesinje (1,495 ha, 1.5 %); Gacko (364 ha, 0.5 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 29.8 °C, humidity dropped to 29 % and gusts hit 33 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 20, class Moderate.
- 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.