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UA · Ukraine · –

Henichesk fire, 17 July 2025 Генічеський район · Henichesk

Out · last detection 18 Jul 2025, 09:19 UTC

The fire started on 17 July 2025 in Henichesk, Ukraine, and satellites saw it burning for 2 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 349 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 321th largest in Kherson Oblast since 2016 (of 1103 with a page). Number 319 in Ukraine in 2025, of 1359.

The power measured by the satellite is low (14.2 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
349ha
Copernicus perimeter
Duration
2days
17 Jul 2025 – 18 Jul 2025
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
17 Jul
2025
Heat detections
10
in a single hotspot: 14 MW
Danger at start
16
Moderate · FWI index
Average daily power
47MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 17 Jul18 Jul
18 Jul 2025

How it evolved, day by day

17 Jul 2025 · 1 MW · 1 18 Jul 2025 · 94 MW · 9
17 Jul 18 Jul

Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.

The weather it burned in

32°high
36km/h · peak gust
43%lowest humidity

It had gone 17 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

23% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 81 ha in 2023.

What happened to each town

  1. Henichesk Генічеський район 59,491 inhabitants · 36.1 km from the centre where it started
    336 ha reached on 17 Jul
    0.2 %

Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the official perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance runs from the point marking the centre of each area to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.

What burned

  • Other natural land62 %
  • Agricultural areas38 %

Land cover inside the perimeter as reported by Copernicus EFFIS (outside the Corine Land Cover area).

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)
17 Jul 29.8 °C 50 % 36 km/h 1.4 mm Moderate 16
18 Jul 32.2 °C 43 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
19 Jul after 29.1 °C 43 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
20 Jul after 28.8 °C 42 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
21 Jul after 30.5 °C 41 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
22 Jul after 32.7 °C 37 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
23 Jul after 32.0 °C 46 % 39 km/h 0.2 mm High 36
24 Jul after 32.2 °C 35 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
25 Jul after 33.0 °C 40 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
26 Jul after 33.9 °C 41 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
27 Jul after 33.3 °C 45 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
28 Jul after 29.5 °C 62 % 55 km/h 0.0 mm High 34

Its twins: fires that started in the same weather

It started with an FWI of 15.9, a minimum humidity of 50% and 17 days without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2022: 21.

FWI at the start 15.9
Minimum humidity 50 %
Days without rain 17
this fire chosen twins rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar

Outlines of the closest twins

Bilozerka fire, July 2026
130 ha 1 day FWI 18.4 Min. humidity 49 % 182 km away, in 2026

First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 7.6 mm on 8 Jul.

What happened to them

1 day
median duration
158 ha
median area
0 %
went past 1,000 ha
3.7 mm
rain at the end (median; 15 of 21 had it)

It was 2.2 times larger than the median of its twins and lasted 2 days, against 1 day.

Only 4 of its 21 twins burned more. The weather on the first day does not explain everything: the wind in the following days, the fuel and the firefighting also count. In 6 of 21, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 3.7 mm.

This is a bank of analogues: it shows what usually happens, not what will happen. With fewer than 15 twins we give no figures. How we calculate it

How it ended

—first rain
—no rain in ten days
36km/h · max. gust

It was considered over on 18 Jul, and not even 1 mm fell in the following ten days: it went out without rain. Twins with rain when they ended: 15 of 21, with a median of 3.7 mm.

Weather on this page: Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Climate Change Service (ERA5)

How a twin is chosen

  • Same area: fires that have already ended, less than 250 km from this one, since 2022.
  • Same start: we compare the FWI on the first day, the minimum humidity that day and the run of days without rain before it. The slider sets how much they may differ.
  • Only pages with final weather data (ERA5 reanalysis) calculated in the same way as this fire’s; agricultural and grass burns and pages with data under review are left out.
  • Fires burning at the same time as this one (a week before or after) are left out: they share the same spell of weather and do not count as a precedent.
  • They are sorted by similarity, and the outlines of the first five are drawn.

How we calculate it

Before and after, from space

Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.

Before · 10 Jul 2025
After · 25 Jul 2025

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 · Copernicus

On 16 July 2025 the air beside the fire reached 12 µg/m³ of PM2.5, but no daily average passed the WHO guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak12 µg/m³
Days over the guideline0 days
PM1015 µg/m³
Optical depth0.45
16 Jul18 Jul20 Jul
Good Fair Moderate Poor Very poor Extremely poor

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 · 10Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
⬇ Download CSV Times in UTC. Each detection is a 375 m pixel: a large fire yields hundreds per pass.
Date and timeSatelliteFRP (MW)LatLon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Ukraine

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Henichesk fire last?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 17 July 2025 to 18 July 2025 (2 days). The perimeter dates it from 18 July 2025 to 18 July 2025.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 349 hectares (3.5 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Henichesk (336 ha, 0.2 %).
Did the fire reach a town?
The fire started in Henichesk and came within 36.1 km of its centre. That is the distance from the perimeter, or the nearest hotspot, to the point marking the centre; it does not mean it entered the houses.
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 32.2 °C, humidity dropped to 43 % and gusts hit 36 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 24, class High.
Where does this data come from?
From the EFFIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Ukraine (geoBoundaries). It is not an official report.
How did the fires that started in similar weather in this area end?
Fires less than 250 km away that started since 2022 with a similar FWI, humidity and dry spell: 21. Their median duration was 1 day and their median area 158 ha; 0 % went past 1,000 ha. Only 4 of its 21 twins burned more. The weather on the first day does not explain everything: the wind in the following days, the fuel and the firefighting also count. In 6 of 21, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 3.7 mm.

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: 101 · 112 · Emergency number and official warnings

Satellite cross-check

History of this page Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.

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
What do you think is wrong?

We will only use your email to reply about this report. Privacy. This is not an emergency service: if there is a fire now, call 101 · 112.

How we know this
  • Perimeter: EFFIS (Copernicus), mapped on satellite imagery.
  • Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 18 July 2025 to 18 July 2025. 10 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.

How we build fire pages: methodology

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 (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.