How long did the Saraj fire last?

According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 27 August 2026 to 30 August 2026 (4 days). The perimeter dates it from 27 August 2026 to 27 August 2026.

How much area did it burn?

The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 1,196 hectares (12.0 km²). Official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire entered 2 municipalities: Saraj (1,198 ha, 5.2 %); Jegunovtse (0 ha, 0.0 %).

Did the fire reach a town?

The closest fire to a town centre came within 5.6 km of Jegunovtse. 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 32.7 °C, humidity dropped to 27 % and gusts hit 21 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 34, class High.

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 · 2026-08-27 → 2026-08-30

Saraj fire, August 2026 Општина Сарај · Saraj, Jegunovtse

Out · last detection 30 Aug 2026, 00:35 UTC

The fire started on 27 August 2026 in Saraj, North Macedonia, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 1,196 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 3th largest in Skopje since 2016 (of 31 with a page). Number 4 in North Macedonia in 2026, of 40.

The power measured by the satellite is low (16.1 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: 1,196ha; Copernicus perimeter
Duration: 4days; 27 Aug 2026 – 30 Aug 2026
Municipalities hit: 2; municipalities
Started on: 27 Aug; 2026
Heat detections: 45; in a single hotspot: 16 MW
Danger at start: 34; High · FWI index
Energy released: 214MW; sum of detected power

Play back 30 Aug 2026

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 27 Aug30 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

27282930

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

The weather it burned in

33°high

21km/h · peak gust

27%lowest humidity

It had gone 30 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

72% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 528 ha in 2017, 647 ha in 2021, 114 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 862 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

Saraj Општина Сарај 38,399 inhabitants · 10.0 km from the town where it started

1,198 ha reached on 27 Aug

5.2 %
Jegunovtse Општина Јегуновце 8,895 inhabitants · 5.6 km from the town

0 ha

0.0 %

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

Sclerophyllous scrub55 %
Other natural land32 %
Scrub and transitional woodland10 %
Broadleaved forest2.6 %

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)
27 Aug	32.7 °C	27 %	21 km/h	0.0 mm	High 34
28 Aug	35.0 °C	24 %	30 km/h	0.1 mm	Very high 38
29 Aug	34.1 °C	32 %	26 km/h	0.4 mm	High 35
30 Aug	31.1 °C	31 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	High 37
31 Aug after	32.1 °C	31 %	22 km/h	0.0 mm	High 34
1 Sept after	32.0 °C	29 %	39 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 41
2 Sept after	30.4 °C	33 %	24 km/h	0.0 mm	High 33
3 Sept after	29.1 °C	23 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 38
4 Sept after	27.5 °C	25 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 39
5 Sept after	31.7 °C	22 %	21 km/h	0.0 mm	High 34
6 Sept after	28.0 °C	23 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 20 Aug 2026

After · 6 Sept 2026

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 August 2026 the air beside the fire reached 48 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 32: 2.1 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak48 µg/m³

Days over the guideline4 days

PM1086 µg/m³

Optical depth0.73

WHO 15

252627282930

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 · 45Every 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 Saraj fire last?: According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 27 August 2026 to 30 August 2026 (4 days). The perimeter dates it from 27 August 2026 to 27 August 2026.
How much area did it burn?: The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 1,196 hectares (12.0 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire entered 2 municipalities: Saraj (1,198 ha, 5.2 %); Jegunovtse (0 ha, 0.0 %).
Did the fire reach a town?: The closest fire to a town centre came within 5.6 km of Jegunovtse. 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 32.7 °C, humidity dropped to 27 % and gusts hit 21 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 34, class High.
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

Центар за управување со кризи ↗

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

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 193 · 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 (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