Sălașu de Sus fire, March 2026 Sălașu de Sus
The fire started on 14 March 2026 in Sălașu de Sus, Romania, and satellites saw it burning for 2 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 249 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 24th largest in Hunedoara since 2016 (of 72 with a page). Number 20 in Romania in 2026, of 59.
The power measured by the satellite is low (10.2 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…
- Burnt area
- 249ha
- Copernicus perimeter
- Duration
- ≈ 2days
- 14 Mar 2026 – 15 Mar 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- municipalities
- Started on
- 14 Mar
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 12
- in a single hotspot: 10 MW
- Danger at start
- 7
- Low · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 37MW
- 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 16 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
98% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 146 ha in 2019, 199 ha in 2020, 165 ha in 2021, 147 ha in 2022, 62 ha in 2023, 131 ha in 2024, 230 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 245 ha that had burned before.
- 230 ha Sălașu de Sus fire, March 2025 466 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 199 ha Sălașu de Sus fire, April 2020 317 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 146 ha Sălașu de Sus fire, March 2019 185 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 131 ha Sălașu de Sus fire, February 2024 148 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 81 ha Sălașu de Sus fire, March 2022 119 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 65 ha Sălașu de Sus fire, February 2022 100 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 25 ha Sălașu de Sus fire, February 2021 112 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Sălașu de Sus where it started249 ha reached on 14 Mar1.1 %
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
- Scrub and transitional woodland62 %
- Agricultural areas23 %
- Broadleaved forest16 %
Natura 2000 protected area affected: 100 %
- LIC Strei - Hațeg ROSCI0236
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 14 Mar | 11.3 °C | 30 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 7 |
| 15 Mar | 10.2 °C | 39 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 6 |
| 16 Mar after | 9.5 °C | 45 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very low 5 |
| 17 Mar after | 10.0 °C | 43 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very low 5 |
| 18 Mar after | 9.3 °C | 38 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 6 |
| 19 Mar after | 5.7 °C | 49 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very low 5 |
| 20 Mar after | 5.8 °C | 50 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very low 4 |
| 21 Mar after | 7.4 °C | 45 % | 27 km/h | 0.2 mm | Very low 4 |
| 22 Mar after | 9.1 °C | 55 % | 23 km/h | 0.6 mm | Very low 3 |
| 23 Mar after | 7.9 °C | 62 % | 18 km/h | 0.5 mm | Very low 3 |
| 24 Mar after | 10.6 °C | 51 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very low 3 |
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 16 March 2026 the air beside the fire reached 15 µg/m³ of PM2.5, but no daily average passed the WHO 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 · 12Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Sălașu de Sus fire last?
- The official perimeter only gives the start date (14 March 2026). The end comes from the heat detections inside the perimeter: it burned until 15 March 2026 (2 days from 14 March 2026), the last day with detections before more than 10 days in a row without any, so it is approximate.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 249 hectares (2.5 km²). Official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Sălașu de Sus (249 ha, 1.1 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 11.3 °C, humidity dropped to 30 % and gusts hit 30 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 7, class Low.
- Where does this data come from?
- From the EFFIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Romania (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 · 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.
- The official perimeter has no end date: the end is the last day with VIIRS detections inside the perimeter before a gap of more than 10 days (150 days at most), so it is approximate. 12 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.