Keshan County fire, 14 April 2026 Keshan County
The fire started on 14 April 2026 in Keshan County, China, and satellites saw it burning for 3 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,871 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 354th largest in Heilongjiang Province since 2016 (of 1751 with a page). Number 232 in China in 2026, of 929.
- Burnt area
- 2,871ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 3days
- 14 Apr 2026 – 16 Apr 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- counties
- Started on
- 14 Apr
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 39
- in a single hotspot: 61 MW
- Danger at start
- 3
- Very low · FWI index
- Energy released
- 337MW
- 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: 13.0 mm on 17 Apr.
This area had burned before
4% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 128 ha in 2016.
What happened to each town
-
Keshan County where it started2,865 ha0.9 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 14 Apr | 10.6 °C | 22 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very low 3 |
| 15 Apr | 14.7 °C | 24 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 9 |
| 16 Apr | 14.2 °C | 22 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 10 |
| 17 Apr after | 13.4 °C | 31 % | 45 km/h | 13.0 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 17 April 2026 the air beside the fire reached 111 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 27: 1.8 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 · 39Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 11,204 haNehe City14 April 2026 · 3 days · 19 km away
- 14,237 haKeshan County31 October 2025 · 6 days · 30 km away
- 8,398 haNehe City14 April 2026 · 3 days · 34 km away
- 2,637 haKeshan County16 April 2026 · 3 days · 36 km away
- 4,957 haNehe City14 April 2026 · 3 days · 40 km away
- 3,208 haNehe City24 October 2025 · 1 day · 40 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Keshan County fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 14 April 2026 and 16 April 2026: 3 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 2,871 hectares (28.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Keshan County (2,865 ha, 0.9 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 14.7 °C, humidity dropped to 22 % and gusts hit 43 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 10, 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.