Keshan County fire, 31 October 2025 Keshan County, Yi'an County, Baiquan County
The fire started on 31 October 2025 in Keshan County, China, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 14,237 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.
It is the 29th largest in Heilongjiang Province since 2016 (of 1751 with a page). Number 14 in China in 2025, of 736.
- Burnt area
- 14,237ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 6days
- 31 Oct 2025 – 5 Nov 2025
- Municipalities hit
- 3
- counties
- Started on
- 31 Oct
- 2025
- Heat detections
- 406
- in a single hotspot: 75 MW
- Danger at start
- 8
- Low · FWI index
- Energy released
- 4.9GW
- 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 6 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.1 mm on 6 Nov.
This area had burned before
53% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 458 ha in 2016, 1,016 ha in 2017, 4,200 ha in 2020, 415 ha in 2021, 1,179 ha in 2022, 3,890 ha in 2024. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 7,526 ha that had burned before.
- 1,046 ha Keshan County fire, April 2020 1,616 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 974 ha Keshan County fire, April 2020 1,227 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 839 ha Keshan County fire, April 2022 1,447 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 210 ha Keshan County fire, March 2016 2,365 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Keshan County where it started13,762 ha4.4 %
-
211 ha0.1 %
-
190 ha0.0 %
Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the GWIS 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.
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 24 Oct | 7.3 °C | 41 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 8 |
| 25 Oct | 6.1 °C | 39 % | 28 km/h | 0.2 mm | Low 8 |
| 26 Oct | 2.1 °C | 46 % | 40 km/h | 0.2 mm | Low 9 |
| 27 Oct | 0.5 °C | 64 % | 49 km/h | 0.5 mm | Low 8 |
| 28 Oct | 2.3 °C | 48 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 6 |
| 29 Oct | 1.8 °C | 49 % | 40 km/h | 1.9 mm | Very low 2 |
| 30 Oct | 5.9 °C | 42 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very low 3 |
| 31 Oct | 7.0 °C | 38 % | 19 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very low 4 |
| 1 Nov | 1.7 °C | 63 % | 52 km/h | 3.5 mm | Very low 1 |
| 2 Nov | 0.2 °C | 46 % | 46 km/h | 0.4 mm | Very low 2 |
| 3 Nov | 5.4 °C | 37 % | 50 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very low 4 |
| 4 Nov | 8.3 °C | 32 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 7 |
| 5 Nov | 6.4 °C | 50 % | 30 km/h | 1.5 mm | Very low 2 |
| 6 Nov after | 4.1 °C | 52 % | 29 km/h | 1.1 mm | Very low 2 |
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 5 November 2025 the air beside the fire reached 111 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 63: 4.2 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 · 406Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 1,911 haYi'an County5 November 2024 · 3 days · 10 km away
- 2,365 haKeshan CountyMarch 2016 · 7 days · 13 km away
- 4,576 haKeshan County14 April 2026 · 3 days · 16 km away
- 2,207 haBaiquan County14 April 2026 · 3 days · 19 km away
- 2,871 haKeshan County14 April 2026 · 3 days · 30 km away
- 6,927 haBaiquan County4 November 2025 · 2 days · 35 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Keshan County fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 31 October 2025 and 5 November 2025: 6 days between the first and last heat detection of the perimeter.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 14,237 hectares (142.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 3 municipalities: Keshan County (13,762 ha, 4.4 %); Yi'an County (211 ha, 0.1 %); Baiquan County (190 ha, 0.0 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 8.3 °C, humidity dropped to 32 % and gusts hit 52 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 9, class Low.
- Where does this data come from?
- From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of China (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: 119
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 comes from the Copernicus Global Wildfire Information System (GWIS), which rebuilds it from MODIS and VIIRS heat detections and publishes it under CC BY 4.0. It is not measured on imagery as in Europe, so it is an estimate. 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 (Open Data Commons Open Database License 1.0). The area per municipality is computed by WorldFires by crossing the perimeter with those boundaries, so it may differ from each country’s official figure.