Krushevo fire, October 2019 Општина Крушево · Krushevo
The fire started on 26 October 2019 in Krushevo, North Macedonia, and satellites saw it burning for 5 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 305 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 34th largest in Pelagonia since 2016 (of 76 with a page). Number 21 in North Macedonia in 2019, of 77.
The power measured by the satellite is low (25.2 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.
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- Burnt area
- 305ha
- Copernicus perimeter
- Duration
- 5days
- 26 Oct 2019 – 30 Oct 2019
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- municipalities
- Started on
- 26 Oct
- 2019
- Heat detections
- 37
- in a single hotspot: 25 MW
- Danger at start
- 24
- High · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 50MW
- detected power per day, on average
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 22 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 8.9 mm on 4 Nov.
This area had burned before
No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.
What happened to each town
-
305 ha reached on 26 Oct1.6 %
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
- Scrub and transitional woodland42 %
- Other natural land35 %
- Agricultural areas15 %
- Broadleaved forest8.2 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 27 Oct | 20.6 °C | 14 % | 17 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 28 Oct | 19.9 °C | 13 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 29 Oct | 18.1 °C | 23 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 30 Oct | 14.9 °C | 38 % | 19 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 31 Oct after | 7.5 °C | 74 % | 19 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 10 |
| 1 Nov after | 7.2 °C | 72 % | 18 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 8 |
| 2 Nov after | 11.3 °C | 63 % | 37 km/h | 0.4 mm | Low 10 |
| 3 Nov after | 13.8 °C | 60 % | 50 km/h | 0.1 mm | Moderate 12 |
| 4 Nov after | 12.0 °C | 77 % | 62 km/h | 8.9 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 30 October 2019 the air beside the fire reached 46 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 29: 1.9 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 · 37Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 3,551 haDrugovo Општина КичевоAugust 2024 · 6 days · 12 km away
- 3,768 haMakedonski Brod Општина Македонски Брод2 July 2025 · 9 days · 21 km away
- 6,884 haChashka Општина Чашка14 August 2024 · 15 days · 31 km away
- 2,056 haMakedonski Brod Општина Македонски Брод1 September 2026 · 25 days · 35 km away
- 2,807 haMakedonski Brod Општина Македонски Брод28 July 2024 · 12 days · 36 km away
- 10,265 haMariovo Општина ПрилепSeptember 2024 · 7 days · 40 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Krushevo fire last?
- According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 26 October 2019 to 30 October 2019 (5 days). The perimeter dates it from 27 October 2019 to 30 October 2019.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 305 hectares (3.0 km²). Official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Krushevo (305 ha, 1.6 %).
- Did the fire reach a town?
- The fire started in Krushevo and came within 25.0 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 20.6 °C, humidity dropped to 13 % and gusts hit 26 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 25, class 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 · 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.
No changes 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
How we know this
- Perimeter: EFFIS (Copernicus), mapped on satellite imagery.
- Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 27 October 2019 to 30 October 2019. 37 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.
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.