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Shakhtarsk fire, 28 July 2025 Шахтарський район · Shakhtarsk

Out · last measured on 31 Jul 2025

The fire started on 28 July 2025 in Shakhtarsk, Ukraine, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 140 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 670th largest in Donetsk Oblast since 2016 (of 1004 with a page). Number 953 in Ukraine in 2025, of 1358.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Bakhmut · 2024Bakhmut · 2025Bakhmut · 2024Bakhmut · 2022

We have the Copernicus perimeter for this fire, but not yet its hotspots: NASA publishes the yearly hotspot archive only once the year closes. The page picks it up automatically when it is available.

Burnt area
140ha
Copernicus perimeter
Duration
4days
28 Jul 2025 – 31 Jul 2025
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
28 Jul
2025
Danger at start
36
High · FWI index

Where it burned

The weather it burned in

36°high
51km/h · peak gust
17%lowest humidity

It had gone 4 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 6.2 mm on 3 Aug.

This area had burned before

45% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 63 ha in 2023.

What happened to each town

  1. Shakhtarsk Шахтарський район 18,952 inhabitants · 27.8 km from the centre where it started
    140 ha reached on 24 Jul
    0.1 %

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

  • Other natural land81 %
  • Mixed forest18 %
  • Agricultural areas1.4 %

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 area0.16 ha
Residents< 20

Inside the perimeter there were about 0.16 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)
28 Jul 31.3 °C 22 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
29 Jul 33.5 °C 18 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
30 Jul 36.2 °C 17 % 51 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
31 Jul 28.9 °C 45 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
1 Aug after 28.6 °C 36 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
2 Aug after 30.8 °C 29 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
3 Aug after 25.6 °C 56 % 35 km/h 6.2 mm Very low 5

Its twins: fires that started in the same weather

It started with an FWI of 35.8, a minimum humidity of 22% and 4 days without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 46.

FWI at the start 35.8
Minimum humidity 22 %
Days without rain 4
this fire chosen twins rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar

Outlines of the closest twins

Bakhmut fire, July 2024
156 ha 2 days FWI 35.9 Min. humidity 22 % 61 km away, in 2024

First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 2.8 mm on 4 Aug.

See its page Compare with this fire

What happened to them

2 days
median duration
162 ha
median area
2 %
went past 1,000 ha
3.1 mm
rain at the end (median; 40 of 46 had it)

It burned an area similar to its twins (140 ha against a median of 162 ha) and lasted 4 days, against 2 days.

In 6 of 46, 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 3.1 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

6.2 mmfirst rain
3 Aug3 days after it ended
51km/h · max. gust

It was considered over on 31 Jul, and on 3 Aug 6.2 mm fell. We do not know whether the rain or the firefighters put it out. Twins with rain when they ended: 40 of 46, with a median of 3.1 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 · 21 Jul 2025
After · 7 Aug 2025

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 26 July 2025 the air beside the fire reached 51 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 25: 1.7 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak51 µg/m³
Days over the guideline2 days
PM1063 µg/m³
Optical depth0.70
26 Jul28 Jul30 Jul
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)

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 28 July 2025 to 31 July 2025 (4 days). The perimeter dates it from 28 July 2025 to 28 July 2025.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 140 hectares (1.4 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Shakhtarsk (140 ha, 0.1 %).
Did the fire reach a town?
The fire started in Shakhtarsk and came within 27.8 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 36.2 °C, humidity dropped to 17 % and gusts hit 51 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 48, class Very high.
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: 46. Their median duration was 2 days and their median area 162 ha; 2 % went past 1,000 ha. In 6 of 46, 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 3.1 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 28 July 2025 to 28 July 2025. No 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.