Saraj fire, December 2025 Општина Сарај · Saraj
The fire started on 14 December 2025 in Saraj, North Macedonia, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 167 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 22th largest in Skopje since 2016 (of 31 with a page). Number 26 in North Macedonia in 2025, of 37.
The power measured by the satellite is low (6.6 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…
- Burnt area
- 167ha
- Copernicus perimeter
- Duration
- 4days
- 14 Dec 2025 – 17 Dec 2025
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- municipalities
- Started on
- 14 Dec
- 2025
- Heat detections
- 2
- in a single hotspot: 7 MW
- Danger at start
- 0
- Very low · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 13MW
- detected power per day, on average
Where it burned
How it evolved, day by day
14 Dec 2025 · 13 MW · 2
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 7 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.2 mm on 23 Dec.
This area had burned before
45% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 18 ha in 2017, 59 ha in 2021.
What happened to each town
-
167 ha reached on 14 Dec0.7 %
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
- Sclerophyllous scrub88 %
- Scrub and transitional woodland9.3 %
- Other natural land3.1 %
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 Dec | 5.2 °C | 51 % | 18 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very low 0 |
| 15 Dec | 6.9 °C | 50 % | 17 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very low 0 |
| 16 Dec | 4.9 °C | 51 % | 15 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very low 0 |
| 17 Dec | 5.5 °C | 63 % | 17 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very low 0 |
| 18 Dec after | 7.0 °C | 69 % | 14 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very low 0 |
| 19 Dec after | 7.6 °C | 68 % | 18 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very low 0 |
| 20 Dec after | 3.8 °C | 78 % | 15 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very low 0 |
| 21 Dec after | 1.8 °C | 79 % | 13 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very low 0 |
| 22 Dec after | 2.4 °C | 80 % | 17 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very low 0 |
| 23 Dec after | 2.3 °C | 86 % | 17 km/h | 1.2 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 15 December 2025 the air beside the fire reached 86 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 57: 3.8 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 · 2Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 1,196 haSaraj Општина СарајAugust 2026 · 4 days · 2 km away
- 1,813 haSaraj Општина СарајJuly 2017 · 10 days · 4 km away
- 2,252 haJegunovtse Општина ЈегуновцеAugust 2025 · 5 days · 9 km away
- 1,226 haChucher - Sandevo Општина Чучер-СандевоJuly 2025 · 4 days · 13 km away
- 5,197 haMakedonski Brod Општина Македонски БродJuly 2017 · 19 days · 29 km away
- 2,807 haMakedonski Brod Општина Македонски Брод28 July 2024 · 12 days · 35 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Saraj fire last?
- According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 14 December 2025 to 17 December 2025 (4 days). The perimeter dates it from 14 December 2025 to 14 December 2025.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 167 hectares (1.7 km²). Official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Saraj (167 ha, 0.7 %).
- Did the fire reach a town?
- The fire started in Saraj and came within 10.5 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 5.2 °C, humidity dropped to 51 % and gusts hit 18 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 0, class Very low.
- 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 14 December 2025 to 14 December 2025. 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.
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.