How long did the Makedonski Brod fire last?

According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 25 July 2017 to 12 August 2017 (19 days). The perimeter dates it from 31 July 2017 to 5 August 2017.

How much area did it burn?

The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 5,197 hectares (52.0 km²). Official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire entered 3 municipalities: Brvenitsa (2,595 ha, 16 %); Makedonski Brod (1,892 ha, 2.1 %); Gostivar (717 ha, 1.4 %).

Did the fire reach a town?

The fire came within 10.8 km of the centre of Gostivar, the closest of the areas it touched. 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 29.9 °C, humidity dropped to 9 % and gusts hit 47 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 54, class Extreme.

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.

MK · North Macedonia · 2017-07-25 → 2017-08-12

Makedonski Brod fire, July 2017 Македонски Брод · Brvenitsa, Makedonski Brod, Gostivar

Out · last detection 12 Aug 2017, 23:33 UTC

The fire started on 25 July 2017 in Makedonski Brod, North Macedonia, and satellites saw it burning for 19 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 5,197 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 3 municipalities.

It is the largest fire in Southwest since 2016 (of 62 with a page). The largest in North Macedonia in 2017, of 44.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Makedonski Brod · 2024 Makedonski Brod · 2026 Saraj · 2017 Makedonski Brod · 2025

Burnt area: 5,197ha; Copernicus perimeter
Duration: 19days; 25 Jul 2017 – 12 Aug 2017
Municipalities hit: 3; municipalities
Started on: 25 Jul; 2017
Heat detections: 303; in a single hotspot: 219 MW
Danger at start: 36; High · FWI index
Average daily power: 140MW; detected power per day, on average

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 25 Jul12 Aug

Play back 12 Aug 2017

How it evolved, day by day

25 Jul 29 Jul 31 Jul 1 Aug 4 Aug 7 Aug 11 Aug

Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.

The weather it burned in

30°high

47km/h · peak gust

9%lowest humidity

It had gone 3 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.2 mm on 12 Aug.

This area had burned before

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

How big is it?

It burned the equivalent of 3.3% of the area of London (52 km² against 1,583 km²).

London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).

This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.

What happened to each town

Brvenitsa Општина Брвеница 13,645 inhabitants · 14.4 km from the centre

2,595 ha reached on 1 Aug

16 %
Makedonski Brod Општина Македонски Брод 5,889 inhabitants · 24.4 km from the centre where it started

1,892 ha reached on 25 Jul

2.1 %
Gostivar Општина Гостивар 59,770 inhabitants · 10.8 km from the centre

717 ha reached on 3 Aug

1.4 %

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

Other natural land87 %
Scrub and transitional woodland5.5 %
Broadleaved forest4.8 %
Agricultural areas1.4 %
Sclerophyllous scrub1.1 %

Land cover inside the perimeter according to Corine Land Cover, as reported by Copernicus.

Checked against the press

Checked on 29 September 2026

We checked this page against 4 sources published once the fire was out. This is what they add:

Also known as: Пожарот кај Требовле · Пожарот кај Требовље · Пожарът в Македонски Брод

Sources

Кривични пријави за две лица осомничени дека го предизвикале пожарот кај Македонски Брод со фрлен опушок — Sakam Da Kazam (sdk.mk), 15 August 2017
Огнен ужас в Македония! Огромният пожар е извън контрол, ситуацията е критична — Petel.bg, 4 August 2017
Бугарски хеликоптер го гаси пожарот кај Требовле, огнот се шири кон Лутоец и Растеш — Time.mk (agregador de prensa macedonia), 3 August 2017
Пожарът в Македонски Брод се разширява — Novinite.bg, 3 August 2017

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)
31 Jul	27.1 °C	19 %	45 km/h	0.0 mm	High 36
1 Aug	27.3 °C	15 %	41 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 39
2 Aug	27.4 °C	17 %	47 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 44
3 Aug	28.5 °C	9 %	45 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 53
4 Aug	29.4 °C	9 %	39 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 52
5 Aug	29.9 °C	16 %	45 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 54
6 Aug	29.5 °C	20 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 46
7 Aug	28.0 °C	24 %	51 km/h	0.5 mm	Very high 39
8 Aug	27.0 °C	29 %	30 km/h	0.5 mm	High 32
9 Aug	28.6 °C	16 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	High 36
10 Aug	28.5 °C	20 %	47 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 42
11 Aug	29.2 °C	17 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	High 38
12 Aug	28.8 °C	13 %	58 km/h	1.2 mm	Very high 40

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 18 Jul 2017

After · 19 Aug 2017

Before After

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 7 August 2017 the air beside the fire reached 42 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 25: 1.7 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak42 µg/m³

Days over the guideline5 days

PM1047 µg/m³

WHO 15

29303112345678

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)

Detections table · 303Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.

⬇ Download CSV Times in UTC. Each detection is a 375 m pixel: a large fire yields hundreds per pass.

Date and time	Satellite	FRP (MW)	Lat	Lon

Other fires nearby

All fires in North Macedonia ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Makedonski Brod fire last?: According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 25 July 2017 to 12 August 2017 (19 days). The perimeter dates it from 31 July 2017 to 5 August 2017.
How much area did it burn?: The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 5,197 hectares (52.0 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire entered 3 municipalities: Brvenitsa (2,595 ha, 16 %); Makedonski Brod (1,892 ha, 2.1 %); Gostivar (717 ha, 1.4 %).
Did the fire reach a town?: The fire came within 10.8 km of the centre of Gostivar, the closest of the areas it touched. 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 29.9 °C, humidity dropped to 9 % and gusts hit 47 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 54, class Extreme.
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 ›

Центар за управување со кризи ↗

Satellite cross-check

NASA FIRMS ↗
EFFIS · Copernicus ↗

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.

RSS Changes to this page

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?

Dates or duration Place or towns Burned area Name It was not a wildfire Same fire as another page Something else

What really happened?

Your connection to the fire (optional) Email (optional)

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.

How we know this

Perimeter: EFFIS (Copernicus), mapped on satellite imagery.
Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 31 July 2017 to 5 August 2017. 303 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
We have not matched this page with any official record.
Checked against news and agencies: 4 confirmed sources.
Weather: Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, in cells of about 25 km.

How we build fire pages: methodology ›

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.

Where it burned