How long did the Vasilevo fire last?

According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 16 July 2025 to 28 July 2025 (13 days). The perimeter dates it from 17 July 2025 to 21 July 2025.

How much area did it burn?

The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 5,227 hectares (52.3 km²). Official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire entered 3 municipalities: Vasilevo (3,168 ha, 14 %); Radovish (1,618 ha, 3.2 %); Berovo (446 ha, 0.8 %).

Did the fire reach a town?

The fire started in Vasilevo and came within 9.5 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 32.5 °C, humidity dropped to 17 % and gusts hit 46 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 35, 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 · 2025-07-16 → 2025-07-28

Vasilevo fire, July 2025 Општина Василево · Vasilevo, Radovish, Berovo

Out · last detection 29 Jul 2025, 12:33 UTC

The fire started on 16 July 2025 in Vasilevo, North Macedonia, and satellites saw it burning for 13 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 5,227 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 3 municipalities.

It is the largest fire in Southeast since 2016 (of 23 with a page). The largest in North Macedonia in 2025, of 37.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Vasilevo · 2019 Radovish · 2018 Pehchevo · 2021 Negotino · 2024

Burnt area: 5,227ha; Copernicus perimeter
Duration: 13days; 16 Jul 2025 – 28 Jul 2025
Municipalities hit: 3; municipalities
Started on: 16 Jul; 2025
Heat detections: 429; in a single hotspot: 145 MW
Danger at start: 5; Very low · FWI index
Average daily power: 217MW; detected power per day, on average

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 16 Jul28 Jul

Play back 29 Jul 2025

How it evolved, day by day

16 Jul 18 Jul 20 Jul 22 Jul 24 Jul 25 Jul 26 Jul 28 Jul

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

The weather it burned in

32°high

46km/h · peak gust

17%lowest humidity

It had gone one day without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 4.7 mm on 31 Jul.

This area had burned before

19% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 141 ha in 2018, 863 ha in 2019.

How big is it?

It burned the equivalent of 3.3% of the area of London (52 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

Vasilevo Општина Василево 10,552 inhabitants · 9.5 km from the centre where it started

3,168 ha reached on 16 Jul

14 %
Radovish Општина Радовиш 24,122 inhabitants · 160.7 km from the centre

1,618 ha reached on 25 Jul

3.2 %
Berovo Општина Берово 10,890 inhabitants · 18.5 km from the centre

446 ha reached on 21 Jul

0.8 %

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

Broadleaved forest48 %
Scrub and transitional woodland43 %
Other natural land4.4 %
Agricultural areas4.0 %
Other land cover0.7 %

Land cover inside the perimeter according to Corine Land Cover, as reported by Copernicus.

Checked against the press

Checked on 29 September 2026

We checked this page against 4 sources published once the fire was out. This is what they add:

Also known as: Пожар на Готен · Пожар кај Нивичино · Голем Готен и Малешевски Планини; Official area reported: 5,000 ha (the satellite measured 5,227 ha)

Sources

Михаилов: Околу 5.000 хектари се опожарени на планината Готен, пожарот е подметнат — NetPress, 31 July 2025
Fire in Goten and Maleshevo Mountains in North Macedonia Continues to Burn — BTA, 31 July 2025
Седум пожари активни, два изгаснати – жариштата на Готен и Серта под контрола — TRN, 24 July 2025
5 пожари сè уште горат, три се под контрола: најсериозни жаришта кај Нивичино, Македонски Брод и Василево — Plusinfo, 20 July 2025

Official figures are measured differently from satellite ones and sometimes cover only part of the fire.

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)
17 Jul	27.5 °C	32 %	46 km/h	11.2 mm	Very low 5
18 Jul	24.6 °C	38 %	29 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 12
19 Jul	26.2 °C	27 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	High 22
20 Jul	29.6 °C	19 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	High 33
21 Jul	32.5 °C	17 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	High 35
22 Jul	33.5 °C	18 %	33 km/h	0.0 mm	High 37
23 Jul	31.3 °C	26 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40
24 Jul	31.7 °C	21 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 42
25 Jul	34.5 °C	16 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40
26 Jul	31.6 °C	28 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40
27 Jul	30.2 °C	27 %	47 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 47
28 Jul	27.2 °C	31 %	30 km/h	0.3 mm	High 33
29 Jul after	26.2 °C	27 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	High 37
30 Jul after	26.2 °C	31 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	High 27
31 Jul after	20.3 °C	57 %	26 km/h	4.7 mm	Very low 0

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 9 Jul 2025

After · 4 Aug 2025

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 24 July 2025 the air beside the fire reached 58 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 34: 2.3 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak58 µg/m³

Days over the guideline2 days

PM1089 µg/m³

Optical depth0.74

WHO 15

15161718192021222324

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 · 429Every 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 Vasilevo fire last?: According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 16 July 2025 to 28 July 2025 (13 days). The perimeter dates it from 17 July 2025 to 21 July 2025.
How much area did it burn?: The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 5,227 hectares (52.3 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire entered 3 municipalities: Vasilevo (3,168 ha, 14 %); Radovish (1,618 ha, 3.2 %); Berovo (446 ha, 0.8 %).
Did the fire reach a town?: The fire started in Vasilevo and came within 9.5 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 32.5 °C, humidity dropped to 17 % and gusts hit 46 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 35, 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 · Emergency number and official warnings ›

Центар за управување со кризи ↗

Satellite cross-check

NASA FIRMS ↗
EFFIS · Copernicus ↗

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

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?

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

What really happened?

Your connection to the fire (optional) Email (optional)

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.

How we know this

Perimeter: EFFIS (Copernicus), mapped on satellite imagery.
Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 17 July 2025 to 21 July 2025. 429 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
We have not matched this page with any official record.
Checked against news and agencies: 4 confirmed sources.
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 (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