Goruia fire, March 2019 Goruia, Carașova
The fire started on 15 March 2019 in Goruia, Romania, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 278 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 67th largest in Caraș-Severin since 2016 (of 194 with a page). Number 14 in Romania in 2019, of 37.
The power measured by the satellite is low (1.2 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.
Compare with…
- Burnt area
- 278ha
- Copernicus perimeter
- Duration
- 1day
- 15 Mar 2019 – 15 Mar 2019
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- municipalities
- Started on
- 15 Mar
- 2019
- Heat detections
- 2
- in a single hotspot: 1 MW
- Danger at start
- 3
- Very low · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 2MW
- detected power per day, on average
Where it burned
How it evolved, day by day
15 Mar 2019 · 2 MW · 2
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 3 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 3.7 mm on 16 Mar.
This area had burned before
No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.
What happened to each town
-
252 ha reached on 15 Mar4.0 %
-
Carașova 2,529 inhabitants · 5.4 km from the town25 ha0.2 %
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
- Broadleaved forest52 %
- Other natural land48 %
Natura 2000 protected area affected: 100 %
- ZEPA Munții Semenic - Cheile Carașului ROSPA0086
- LIC Semenic - Cheile Carașului ROSCI0226
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 15 Mar | 8.9 °C | 45 % | 35 km/h | 0.1 mm | Very low 3 |
| 16 Mar after | 8.0 °C | 67 % | 37 km/h | 3.7 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.
The smoke
CAMS · CopernicusOn 15 March 2019 the air beside the fire reached 25 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 17: 1.1 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 · 2Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 710 haBozoviciMarch 2022 · 4 days · 27 km away
- 2,705 haLăpușnicel22 March 2022 · 6 days · 33 km away
- 1,896 haLăpușnicel6 March 2025 · 5 days · 33 km away
- 1,081 haLăpușnicel17 February 2024 · 3 days · 33 km away
- 772 haBucoșnițaMarch 2025 · 2 days · 33 km away
- 1,897 haLăpușnicel23 March 2022 · 6 days · 35 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Goruia fire last?
- Copernicus dates it between 15 March 2019 and 15 March 2019: 1 day between the first and last image with fire.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 278 hectares (2.8 km²). Official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Goruia (252 ha, 4.0 %); Carașova (25 ha, 0.2 %).
- Did the fire reach a town?
- The closest fire to a town centre came within 4.4 km of Goruia. That is the distance to the perimeter or nearest hotspot; it does not mean it entered the houses.
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 8.9 °C, humidity dropped to 45 % and gusts hit 35 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 3, class Very low.
- 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.
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
How we know this
- Perimeter: EFFIS (Copernicus), mapped on satellite imagery.
- Dates from the perimeter: the VIIRS detections inside it did not change them. 2 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.
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.