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Ilinden fire, July 2025 Општина Илинден · Ilinden

Out · last measured on 28 Jul 2025

The fire started on 28 July 2025 in Ilinden, North Macedonia, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 257 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 13th largest in Skopje since 2016 (of 31 with a page). Number 16 in North Macedonia in 2025, of 37.

We have the Copernicus perimeter for this fire, but not yet its hotspots: NASA publishes the yearly hotspot archive only once the year closes. The page picks it up automatically when it is available.

Burnt area
257ha
Copernicus perimeter
Duration
1day
28 Jul 2025 – 28 Jul 2025
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
28 Jul
2025
Danger at start
41
Very high · FWI index

Where it burned

The weather it burned in

33°high
36km/h · peak gust
30%lowest humidity

It had gone 52 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.0 mm on 31 Jul.

This area had burned before

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

What happened to each town

  1. Ilinden Општина Илинден 17,435 inhabitants · 4.1 km from the town where it started
    257 ha
    2.7 %

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 areas79 %
  • Scrub and transitional woodland17 %
  • Artificial surfaces3.9 %

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)
28 Jul 32.6 °C 30 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
29 Jul after 30.3 °C 37 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
30 Jul after 29.4 °C 38 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
31 Jul after 26.5 °C 48 % 32 km/h 1.0 mm Moderate 16

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 21 Jul 2025
After · 4 Aug 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 27 July 2025 the air beside the fire reached 14 µg/m³ of PM2.5, but no daily average passed the WHO guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak14 µg/m³
Days over the guideline0 days
PM1040 µg/m³
Optical depth0.66
262728293031
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)

Other fires nearby

All fires in North Macedonia ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Ilinden fire last?
Copernicus dates it between 28 July 2025 and 28 July 2025: 1 day between the first and last image with fire.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 257 hectares (2.6 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Ilinden (257 ha, 2.7 %).
Did the fire reach a town?
The closest fire to a town centre came within 4.1 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 32.6 °C, humidity dropped to 30 % and gusts hit 36 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 41, 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
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 193 · 112.

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.