Ilinden fire, August 2023 Општина Илинден · Ilinden, Arachinovo
The fire started on 26 August 2023 in Ilinden, North Macedonia, and satellites saw it burning for 2 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 734 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 6th largest in Skopje since 2016 (of 31 with a page). Number 6 in North Macedonia in 2023, of 19.
The power measured by the satellite is low (18.7 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
- 734ha
- Copernicus perimeter
- Duration
- 2days
- 26 Aug 2023 – 27 Aug 2023
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- municipalities
- Started on
- 26 Aug
- 2023
- Heat detections
- 17
- in a single hotspot: 19 MW
- Danger at start
- 39
- Very high · FWI index
- Energy released
- 104MW
- 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 one day without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 7.2 mm on 29 Aug.
This area had burned before
11% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 84 ha in 2021.
What happened to each town
-
651 ha reached on 26 Aug6.7 %
-
84 ha reached on 26 Aug2.6 %
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
- Agricultural areas83 %
- Scrub and transitional woodland11 %
- 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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 26 Aug | 36.5 °C | 20 % | 19 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 27 Aug | 37.4 °C | 18 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 28 Aug after | 37.5 °C | 21 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 29 Aug after | 32.8 °C | 28 % | 49 km/h | 7.2 mm | Moderate 12 |
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 27 August 2023 the air beside the fire reached 21 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 18: 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 · 17Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 1,723 haKumanovo Општина КумановоAugust 2021 · 4 days · 26 km away
- 2,363 haStaro Nagorichane Општина Старо НагоричанеJuly 2025 · 2 days · 29 km away
- 12,051 haSveti Nikole Општина Свети Николе28 July 2024 · 5 days · 33 km away
- 2,252 haJegunovtse Општина ЈегуновцеAugust 2025 · 4 days · 37 km away
- 1,813 haSaraj Општина СарајJuly 2017 · 6 days · 37 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Ilinden fire last?
- Copernicus dates it between 26 August 2023 and 27 August 2023: 2 days between the first and last image with fire.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 734 hectares (7.3 km²). Official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Ilinden (651 ha, 6.7 %); Arachinovo (84 ha, 2.6 %).
- Did the fire reach a town?
- The closest fire to a town centre came within 2.8 km of Ilinden. 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 37.4 °C, humidity dropped to 18 % and gusts hit 22 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 39, class Very high.
- Where does this data come from?
- From the EFFIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of North Macedonia (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: 193 · 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 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.