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Shakhtarsk fire, 18 August 2024 Шахтарський район · Shakhtarsk

Out · last detection 26 Aug 2024, 11:11 UTC

The fire started on 18 August 2024 in Shakhtarsk, Ukraine, and satellites saw it burning for 9 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 1,089 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 36th largest in Donetsk Oblast since 2016 (of 1004 with a page). Number 109 in Ukraine in 2024, of 2092.

The power measured by the satellite is low (14.2 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…

Suggestions: Marinka · 2026Bakhmut · 2025Shakhtarsk · 2023Antratsyt · 2023

Burnt area
1,089ha
Copernicus perimeter
Duration
9days
18 Aug 2024 – 26 Aug 2024
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
18 Aug
2024
Heat detections
40
in a single hotspot: 14 MW
Danger at start
47
Very high · FWI index
Average daily power
74MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 18 Aug26 Aug
26 Aug 2024

How it evolved, day by day

18 Aug 2024 · 85 MW · 14 19 Aug 2024 · 15 MW · 5 25 Aug 2024 · 1 MW · 1 26 Aug 2024 · 197 MW · 20
18 Aug 19 Aug 25 Aug 26 Aug

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

The weather it burned in

36°high
46km/h · peak gust
14%lowest humidity

It had gone 10 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 3.7 mm on 3 Sept.

This area had burned before

4% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 19 ha in 2020, 22 ha in 2023. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 39 ha that had burned before.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 0.7% of the area of London (11 km² against 1,583 km²).

London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).

This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.

What happened to each town

  1. Shakhtarsk Шахтарський район 18,952 inhabitants · 36.7 km from the centre where it started
    1,083 ha reached on 18 Aug
    0.5 %

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

  • Agricultural areas51 %
  • Other natural land39 %
  • Mixed forest9.0 %
  • Broadleaved forest0.7 %

Land cover inside the perimeter as reported by Copernicus EFFIS (outside the Corine Land Cover area).

People and buildings inside the perimeter

GHSL 2025
Built-up area0.12 ha
Residents< 20

Inside the perimeter there were about 0.12 hectares of built-up land and almost nobody lived there (GHSL 2025, satellite-based estimate).

This is an estimate on 100 m cells, made from satellite imagery and census data: it does not mean that homes burned or that anyone was harmed. The perimeter also contains land that never burned. The GHSL 2025 epoch is a projection made from 2020 and earlier data.

Source: Global Human Settlement Layer (GHS-BUILT-S and GHS-POP R2023A), European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC), © European Union, CC BY 4.0. Sum inside the perimeter computed by WorldFires. human-settlement.emergency.copernicus.eu

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)
18 Aug 31.7 °C 18 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
19 Aug 33.6 °C 14 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
20 Aug 34.5 °C 17 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
21 Aug 35.1 °C 16 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 77
22 Aug 35.8 °C 15 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 84
23 Aug 33.6 °C 25 % 45 km/h 0.6 mm Very extreme 72
24 Aug 34.0 °C 28 % 35 km/h 0.2 mm Extreme 54
25 Aug 32.7 °C 19 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
26 Aug 33.2 °C 25 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 67
27 Aug after 32.5 °C 24 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 83
28 Aug after 33.4 °C 23 % 47 km/h 0.4 mm Very extreme 76
29 Aug after 31.1 °C 26 % 47 km/h 0.1 mm Very extreme 75
30 Aug after 31.2 °C 16 % 54 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 88
31 Aug after 32.7 °C 19 % 55 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 81
1 Sept after 31.2 °C 18 % 54 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 89
2 Sept after 31.2 °C 25 % 56 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 94
3 Sept after 24.7 °C 35 % 39 km/h 3.7 mm Moderate 19

Its twins: fires that started in the same weather

It started with an FWI of 47.0, a minimum humidity of 18% and 10 days without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 73.

FWI at the start 47.0
Minimum humidity 18 %
Days without rain 10
this fire chosen twins rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar

Outlines of the closest twins

Marinka fire, July 2026
1,123 ha 11 days FWI 46.6 Min. humidity 18 % 125 km away, in 2026

First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 1.9 mm on 14 Jul.

See its page Compare with this fire

What happened to them

2 days
median duration
199 ha
median area
5 %
went past 1,000 ha
2.8 mm
rain at the end (median; 61 of 73 had it)

It was 5.5 times larger than the median of its twins and lasted 9 days, against 2 days.

Only 4 of its 73 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 12 of 73, 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 2.8 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

3.7 mmfirst rain
3 Sept8 days after it ended
46km/h · max. gust

It was considered over on 26 Aug, and on 3 Sept 3.7 mm fell. We do not know whether the rain or the firefighters put it out. Twins with rain when they ended: 61 of 73, with a median of 2.8 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 · 11 Aug 2024
After · 2 Sept 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 23 August 2024 the air beside the fire reached 12 µg/m³ of PM2.5, but no daily average passed the WHO guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak12 µg/m³
Days over the guideline0 days
PM1039 µg/m³
Optical depth0.35
16 Aug19 Aug22 Aug25 Aug28 Aug
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 · 40Every 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 18 August 2024 to 26 August 2024 (9 days). The perimeter dates it from 19 August 2024 to 23 August 2024.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 1,089 hectares (10.9 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Shakhtarsk (1,083 ha, 0.5 %).
Did the fire reach a town?
The fire started in Shakhtarsk and came within 36.7 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 35.8 °C, humidity dropped to 14 % and gusts hit 46 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 84, class Very extreme.
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: 73. Their median duration was 2 days and their median area 199 ha; 5 % went past 1,000 ha. Only 4 of its 73 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 12 of 73, 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 2.8 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 19 August 2024 to 23 August 2024. 40 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.
  • Built-up area and population come from the JRC Global Human Settlement Layer (epoch 2025, 100 m cells), summed inside the perimeter: an estimate of what was there, not a damage count.

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.