How long did the Roman fire last?

Copernicus dates it between 26 October 2018 and 27 October 2018: 2 days between the first and last image with fire.

How much area did it burn?

The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 404 hectares (4.0 km²). Official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire only entered Roman (404 ha, 1.3 %).

Did the fire reach a town?

The closest fire to a town centre came within 3.8 km of Roman. That is the distance to the perimeter or nearest hotspot; it does not mean it entered the houses.

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 24.4 °C, humidity dropped to 33 % and gusts hit 33 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 17, class Moderate.

Where does this data come from?

From the EFFIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Bulgaria (geoBoundaries). It is not an official report.

BG · Bulgaria · 2018-10-26 → 2018-10-27

Roman fire, October 2018 Роман · Roman

Out · last detection 27 Oct 2018, 11:48 UTC

The fire started on 26 October 2018 in Roman, Bulgaria, and satellites saw it burning for 2 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 404 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 4th largest in Vratsa since 2016 (of 19 with a page). Number 3 in Bulgaria in 2018, of 5.

The power measured by the satellite is low (23.7 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.

Burnt area: 404ha; Copernicus perimeter
Duration: 2days; 26 Oct 2018 – 27 Oct 2018
Municipalities hit: 1; municipalities
Started on: 26 Oct; 2018
Heat detections: 25; in a single hotspot: 24 MW
Danger at start: 14; Moderate · FWI index
Energy released: 116MW; sum of detected power

Play back 27 Oct 2018

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 26 Oct27 Oct

How it evolved, day by day

2627

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

The weather it burned in

24°high

33km/h · peak gust

33%lowest humidity

It had gone one day 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

Roman Роман 4,632 inhabitants · 3.8 km from the town where it started

404 ha reached on 26 Oct

1.3 %

Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the official 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.

What burned

Scrub and transitional woodland42 %
Other natural land28 %
Broadleaved forest19 %
Agricultural areas11 %

Natura 2000 protected area affected: 4 %

LIC Bebresh BG0000374

Natura 2000 sites (European Environment Agency, 2024 release) crossed by the perimeter.

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)
26 Oct	22.0 °C	33 %	33 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 14
27 Oct	24.4 °C	34 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 17
28 Oct after	23.9 °C	41 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 17
29 Oct after	25.1 °C	44 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 17
30 Oct after	26.0 °C	45 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 18
31 Oct after	25.0 °C	54 %	19 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 14
1 Nov after	23.2 °C	59 %	20 km/h	0.1 mm	Moderate 13
2 Nov after	21.9 °C	66 %	21 km/h	0.0 mm	Low 10
3 Nov after	20.0 °C	60 %	22 km/h	0.0 mm	Low 11
4 Nov after	19.3 °C	45 %	22 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 12
5 Nov after	17.0 °C	61 %	22 km/h	0.0 mm	Low 11
6 Nov after	15.3 °C	68 %	19 km/h	0.0 mm	Low 10

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 19 Oct 2018

After · 3 Nov 2018

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 30 October 2018 the air beside the fire reached 16 µg/m³ of PM2.5, but no daily average passed the WHO guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak16 µg/m³

Days over the guideline0 days

PM1027 µg/m³

WHO 15

24252627282930

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 · 25Every 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 Bulgaria ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Roman fire last?: Copernicus dates it between 26 October 2018 and 27 October 2018: 2 days between the first and last image with fire.
How much area did it burn?: The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 404 hectares (4.0 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire only entered Roman (404 ha, 1.3 %).
Did the fire reach a town?: The closest fire to a town centre came within 3.8 km of Roman. That is the distance to the perimeter or nearest hotspot; it does not mean it entered the houses.
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 24.4 °C, humidity dropped to 33 % and gusts hit 33 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 17, class Moderate.
Where does this data come from?: From the EFFIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Bulgaria (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: 112

ГДПБЗН · Пожарна безопасност и защита на населението ↗

Satellite cross-check

NASA FIRMS ↗
EFFIS · Copernicus ↗

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.

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What really happened?

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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 112.

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.

Where it burned