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CA · Canada · –

Torch River No. 488 fire, May 2025 Division No. 18, Unorganized, Torch River No. 488

Out · last detection 7 Jun 2025, 09:08 UTC

The fire started on 8 May 2025 in Torch River No. 488, Canada, and satellites saw it burning for 31 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 338,834 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

This page is probably a fire complex, not a single fire. GWIS merges into one perimeter the fires that touch over weeks, which in large burning seasons can join dozens of separate fires. The total area is reliable; the origin and dates refer to the whole complex.

Other fire pages in the same area and on the same dates:

The largest in Canada in 2025, of 667.

GWIS near-real-time perimeter (Canada, 2025-2026, until NBAC publishes its own): this fire is not compared with fires from earlier years.

Burnt area
338,834ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
31days
8 May 2025 – 7 Jun 2025
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
8 May
2025
Heat detections
41,290
in a single hotspot: 1,810 MW
Danger at start
44
Very high · FWI index
Average daily power
32.1GW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 8 May7 Jun
7 Jun 2025

How it evolved, day by day

8 May 2025 · 14,798 MW · 201 9 May 2025 · 1,744 MW · 248 10 May 2025 · 3,175 MW · 189 11 May 2025 · 586 MW · 33 12 May 2025 · 1,015 MW · 295 13 May 2025 · 15,933 MW · 345 14 May 2025 · 2,850 MW · 226 16 May 2025 · 208 MW · 77 17 May 2025 · 685 MW · 78 18 May 2025 · 1,473 MW · 128 19 May 2025 · 126 MW · 46 21 May 2025 · 493 MW · 25 22 May 2025 · 1,293 MW · 118 23 May 2025 · 12,733 MW · 423 24 May 2025 · 18,722 MW · 982 25 May 2025 · 67,014 MW · 1949 26 May 2025 · 163,834 MW · 5585 27 May 2025 · 242,612 MW · 6072 28 May 2025 · 40,107 MW · 4320 29 May 2025 · 49,294 MW · 2877 30 May 2025 · 65,414 MW · 3584 31 May 2025 · 20,359 MW · 1670 1 Jun 2025 · 55,961 MW · 4898 2 Jun 2025 · 80,076 MW · 2392 3 Jun 2025 · 6,911 MW · 1183 4 Jun 2025 · 26,450 MW · 1342 5 Jun 2025 · 34,354 MW · 1904 6 Jun 2025 · 1,092 MW · 69 7 Jun 2025 · 149 MW · 31
8 May 14 May 22 May 27 May 3 Jun

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
71km/h · peak gust
8%lowest humidity

It had gone 6 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 5.1 mm on 13 Jun.

This area had burned before

2% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,206 ha in 2017, 6,962 ha in 2021, 26 ha in 2023.

How big is it?

20 km
It burned the equivalent of 2.1 times the area of London (3,388 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. 266,665 ha reached on 8 May
    0.8 %
  2. Torch River No. 488 where it started
    57,218 ha reached on 8 May
    11 %

Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the GWIS 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.

People and buildings inside the perimeter

GHSL 2025
Built-up area2.1 ha
Residents≈ 250

Inside the perimeter there were about 2.1 hectares of built-up land and about 250 residents (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)

Started with Strong wind: 15 % of the area in Canada Very dry air: 9.3 % of the area in Canada

Day High Min. humidity Peak gust Rain Danger (FWI)
8 May 29.6 °C 12 % 64 km/h 0.3 mm Very high 44
9 May 19.7 °C 14 % 41 km/h 0.4 mm High 27
10 May 25.3 °C 11 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
11 May 19.2 °C 35 % 53 km/h 2.1 mm Low 10
12 May 23.0 °C 36 % 41 km/h 0.9 mm Moderate 18
13 May 17.9 °C 35 % 62 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
14 May 16.3 °C 34 % 38 km/h 0.1 mm Moderate 15
15 May 15.7 °C 34 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
16 May 12.0 °C 44 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
17 May 12.6 °C 28 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 15
18 May 13.6 °C 28 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
19 May 16.8 °C 24 % 42 km/h 0.3 mm High 25
20 May 16.8 °C 21 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
21 May 17.2 °C 26 % 36 km/h 0.5 mm High 30
22 May 20.2 °C 25 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
23 May 24.4 °C 11 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
24 May 26.2 °C 8 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
25 May 27.4 °C 10 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
26 May 28.0 °C 12 % 54 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 66
27 May 29.0 °C 14 % 55 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 69
28 May 30.2 °C 21 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
29 May 32.6 °C 19 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
30 May 29.4 °C 24 % 56 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
31 May 28.0 °C 14 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
1 Jun 20.7 °C 32 % 59 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
2 Jun 19.3 °C 20 % 62 km/h 0.1 mm Extreme 56
3 Jun 15.3 °C 32 % 62 km/h 0.9 mm Extreme 51
4 Jun 16.8 °C 18 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
5 Jun 22.9 °C 18 % 33 km/h 0.1 mm High 33
6 Jun 26.0 °C 22 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
7 Jun 16.0 °C 52 % 71 km/h 13.9 mm High 26
8 Jun after 13.7 °C 62 % 71 km/h 0.7 mm Very low 2
9 Jun after 23.6 °C 37 % 44 km/h 0.1 mm Low 6
10 Jun after 18.5 °C 31 % 48 km/h 0.1 mm High 24
11 Jun after 19.5 °C 37 % 35 km/h 0.2 mm Moderate 21
12 Jun after 18.4 °C 41 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
13 Jun after 17.8 °C 60 % 33 km/h 5.1 mm Moderate 18

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 1 May 2025
After · 14 Jun 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 29 May 2025 the air beside the fire reached 529 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 176: 12 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak529 µg/m³
Days over the guideline22 days
PM10542 µg/m³
Optical depth4.14
6 May14 May22 May30 May7 Jun
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 · 41,290Every 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 Canada

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Torch River No. 488 fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 8 May 2025 and 7 June 2025: 31 days between the first and last heat detection of the perimeter.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 338,834 hectares (3,388.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Division No. 18, Unorganized (266,665 ha, 0.8 %); Torch River No. 488 (57,218 ha, 11 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 32.6 °C, humidity dropped to 8 % and gusts hit 71 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 69, class Extreme.
Where does this data come from?
From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Canada (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: 911 · 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.

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 911.

How we know this
  • Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery; 17 polygons grouped in this page.
  • Dates from the perimeter: the VIIRS detections inside it did not change them. 41,290 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 comes from the Copernicus Global Wildfire Information System (GWIS), which rebuilds it from MODIS and VIIRS heat detections and publishes it under CC BY 4.0. It is not measured on imagery as in Europe, so it is an estimate. 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 ADM3 (Open Data Commons Open Database License 1.0). The area per municipality is computed by WorldFires by crossing the perimeter with those boundaries, so it may differ from each country’s official figure.