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Orikhiv fire, 21 September 2023 Оріхівський район · Orikhiv

Out · last detection 24 Sept 2023, 09:50 UTC

The fire started on 21 September 2023 in Orikhiv, Ukraine, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 103 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 464th largest in Zaporizhzhia Oblast since 2016 (of 490 with a page). Number 473 in Ukraine in 2023, of 491.

The power measured by the satellite is low (11.6 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Orikhiv · 2025Orikhiv · 2025Orikhiv · 2024Mykhailivka · 2024

Burnt area
103ha
Copernicus perimeter
Duration
4days
21 Sept 2023 – 24 Sept 2023
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
21 Sept
2023
Heat detections
2
in a single hotspot: 12 MW
Danger at start
25
High · FWI index
Average daily power
7MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 21 Sept24 Sept
24 Sept 2023

How it evolved, day by day

22 Sept 2023 · 3 MW · 1 24 Sept 2023 · 12 MW · 1
22 Sept 24 Sept

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

The weather it burned in

28°high
41km/h · peak gust
37%lowest humidity

It had gone 5 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

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

What happened to each town

  1. Orikhiv Оріхівський район 44,686 inhabitants · 28.4 km from the centre where it started
    103 ha reached on 22 Sept
    0.1 %

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 land54 %
  • Agricultural areas46 %

Land cover inside the perimeter as reported by Copernicus EFFIS (outside the Corine Land Cover area).

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)
21 Sept 26.7 °C 37 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
22 Sept 27.6 °C 40 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
23 Sept 27.8 °C 32 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
24 Sept 28.3 °C 24 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
25 Sept after 28.3 °C 24 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
26 Sept after 28.7 °C 23 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
27 Sept after 28.2 °C 19 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
28 Sept after 28.5 °C 21 % 55 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
29 Sept after 27.8 °C 22 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
30 Sept after 27.2 °C 24 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
1 Oct after 26.9 °C 24 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
2 Oct after 20.9 °C 46 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 28

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 14 Sept 2023
After · 1 Oct 2023

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 20 September 2023 the air beside the fire reached 31 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 18: 1.2 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak31 µg/m³
Days over the guideline2 days
PM1058 µg/m³
Optical depth0.13
192021222324252627
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 · 2Every 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 timeSatelliteFRP (MW)LatLon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Ukraine ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Orikhiv fire last?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 21 September 2023 to 24 September 2023 (4 days). The perimeter dates it from 21 September 2023 to 22 September 2023.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 103 hectares (1.0 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Orikhiv (103 ha, 0.1 %).
Did the fire reach a town?
The fire started in Orikhiv and came within 28.4 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 27.6 °C, humidity dropped to 37 % and gusts hit 41 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 27, class High.
Where does this data come from?
From the EFFIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Ukraine (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: 101 · 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.

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?

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 101 · 112.

How we know this
  • Perimeter: EFFIS (Copernicus), mapped on satellite imagery.
  • Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 21 September 2023 to 22 September 2023. 2 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.

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 (Public Domain). 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.