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Shakhtarsk fire, 26 March 2024 Шахтарський район · Shakhtarsk

Out · last detection 31 Mar 2024, 10:46 UTC

The fire started on 26 March 2024 in Shakhtarsk, Ukraine, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 350 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 199th largest in Donetsk Oblast since 2016 (of 1004 with a page). Number 493 in Ukraine in 2024, of 2092.

The power measured by the satellite is low (16.6 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: Sloviansk · 2024Sloviansk · 2024Bakhmut · 2024Bakhmut · 2022

Burnt area
350ha
Copernicus perimeter
Duration
6days
26 Mar 2024 – 31 Mar 2024
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
26 Mar
2024
Heat detections
18
in a single hotspot: 17 MW
Danger at start
6
Low · FWI index
Average daily power
158MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 26 Mar31 Mar

How it evolved, day by day

31 Mar 2024 · 158 MW · 18

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

The weather it burned in

23°high
52km/h · peak gust
25%lowest humidity

It had gone 7 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. Shakhtarsk Шахтарський район 18,952 inhabitants · 29.8 km from the centre where it started
    350 ha reached on 31 Mar
    0.2 %

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 land65 %
  • Agricultural areas30 %
  • Mixed forest4.3 %

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)
26 Mar 12.8 °C 47 % 33 km/h 0.4 mm Low 6
27 Mar 13.5 °C 45 % 36 km/h 0.6 mm Low 8
28 Mar 17.6 °C 34 % 36 km/h 0.1 mm Low 11
29 Mar 18.5 °C 49 % 52 km/h 3.9 mm Low 9
30 Mar 16.8 °C 44 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 2
31 Mar 22.9 °C 25 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 11
1 Apr after 23.5 °C 26 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
2 Apr after 24.1 °C 20 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
3 Apr after 17.8 °C 37 % 46 km/h 0.2 mm Moderate 16
4 Apr after 19.8 °C 22 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
5 Apr after 12.0 °C 43 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 14
6 Apr after 17.4 °C 26 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 14
7 Apr after 21.2 °C 29 % 18 km/h 0.1 mm Moderate 12
8 Apr after 23.8 °C 24 % 16 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
9 Apr after 24.4 °C 27 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
10 Apr after 25.1 °C 28 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 24

Its twins: fires that started in the same weather

It started with an FWI of 6.1, a minimum humidity of 47% and 7 days without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 25.

FWI at the start 6.1
Minimum humidity 47 %
Days without rain 7
this fire chosen twins rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar

Outlines of the closest twins

Sloviansk fire, March 2024
245 ha 1 day FWI 4.8 Min. humidity 47 % 104 km away, in 2024

First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 4.8 mm on 14 Mar.

See its page Compare with this fire

What happened to them

1 day
median duration
166 ha
median area
0 %
went past 1,000 ha
4.7 mm
rain at the end (median; 14 of 25 had it)

It was 2.1 times larger than the median of its twins and lasted 6 days, against 1 day.

Only 3 of its 25 twins burned more. The weather on the first day does not explain everything: the wind in the following days, the fuel and the firefighting also count. In 11 of 25, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 4.7 mm.

This is a bank of analogues: it shows what usually happens, not what will happen. With fewer than 15 twins we give no figures. How we calculate it

How it ended

—first rain
—no rain in ten days
52km/h · max. gust

It was considered over on 31 Mar, and not even 1 mm fell in the following ten days: it went out without rain. Twins with rain when they ended: 14 of 25, with a median of 4.7 mm.

Weather on this page: Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Climate Change Service (ERA5)

How a twin is chosen

  • Same area: fires that have already ended, less than 250 km from this one, since 2016.
  • Same start: we compare the FWI on the first day, the minimum humidity that day and the run of days without rain before it. The slider sets how much they may differ.
  • Only pages with final weather data (ERA5 reanalysis) calculated in the same way as this fire’s; agricultural and grass burns and pages with data under review are left out.
  • Fires burning at the same time as this one (a week before or after) are left out: they share the same spell of weather and do not count as a precedent.
  • They are sorted by similarity, and the outlines of the first five are drawn.

How we calculate it

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 19 Mar 2024
After · 7 Apr 2024

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 27 March 2024 the air beside the fire reached 46 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 22: 1.5 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak46 µg/m³
Days over the guideline6 days
PM1053 µg/m³
Optical depth0.94
24 Mar26 Mar28 Mar30 Mar
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 · 18Every 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 Shakhtarsk fire last?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 26 March 2024 to 31 March 2024 (6 days). The perimeter dates it from 26 March 2024 to 28 March 2024.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 350 hectares (3.5 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Shakhtarsk (350 ha, 0.2 %).
Did the fire reach a town?
The fire started in Shakhtarsk and came within 29.8 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 22.9 °C, humidity dropped to 25 % and gusts hit 52 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 11, class Moderate.
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.
How did the fires that started in similar weather in this area end?
Fires less than 250 km away that started since 2016 with a similar FWI, humidity and dry spell: 25. Their median duration was 1 day and their median area 166 ha; 0 % went past 1,000 ha. Only 3 of its 25 twins burned more. The weather on the first day does not explain everything: the wind in the following days, the fuel and the firefighting also count. In 11 of 25, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 4.7 mm.

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 With cross-checks and a citable version

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 26 March 2024 to 28 March 2024. 18 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.