Vasylkivka fire, 2 October 2026
Васильківський район · Vasylkivka
Out · last detection 9 Oct 2026, 10:34 UTC
Satellites first detected fire on 2 October 2026 in Vasylkivka, Ukraine. It was active for 8 days, with 18 heat detections and an area with fire of about 238 hectares rebuilt from them, spread across a single municipality.
The power measured by the satellite is low (23.7 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.
matches the official recordwith caveatssatellite onlymodel
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Tick the figures you want: they make up the lede and the CSV.
Burned area
satellite only
≈ 238ha
Estimated from hotspots: no perimeter has been published yet.
Source
NASA FIRMS · VIIRS
Date
2 Oct 2026 – 9 Oct 2026
+− cross-check
This is an estimate from the VIIRS pixels that saw fire. It will change when the perimeter is published.
Duration by satellite
satellite only
8days
2 Oct 2026 to 9 Oct 2026: first and last day with fire on the page.
Source
NASA FIRMS · VIIRS
Date
last detection: 9 Oct 2026, 10:34 UTC
+− cross-check
Satellites pass a few times a day and cloud or smoke can hide the fire: a lack of detections is not an official extinction. Each country’s emergency service declares a fire contained or out.
Start
satellite only
2 Oct 2026
First day with fire seen by the satellites or the perimeter.
Source
NASA FIRMS · VIIRS
Date
2 Oct 2026
+− cross-check
No official record is matched to this page, so the alert time and the cause are not known here.
Hotspots
satellite only
18
VIIRS detections at 375 m. Most intense hotspot: 24 MW.
Source
NASA FIRMS · VIIRS (Suomi NPP)
Date
2 Oct 2026 – 9 Oct 2026
+− cross-check
There is no official record to compare with. Each hotspot is a pixel detected in one satellite pass, not a separate fire.
The worst day
satellite only
55MW
Total radiative power on 3 October 2026; hotspots that day: 10.
Source
NASA FIRMS · VIIRS (FRP)
Date
3 Oct 2026
+− cross-check
Fire radiative power (FRP) measures the energy the fire gives off when the satellite passes. Added up by day, it compares intensity, not area.
Danger at the start
model
13.8FWI · moderate
Fire Weather Index (Canadian system) computed by WorldFires for the day the fire started. Consecutive days without rain before: 2.
This is an index computed from weather model data, not a measurement of the fire nor an official warning. Danger warnings are issued by each country’s authority. Emergency number and official warnings ›
ⓘThis page’s change log has been kept since 24 October 2026: every night what it publishes is compared and the difference is logged. Anything earlier is reconstructed from each source’s date and marked as reconstructed.
A version keeps the area, dates, name and official record; the area as it was logged (changes under 2% are not logged). The map, hotspots and weather always show today’s data.
Citation
A lede of about 60 words figures only, no adjectives
Copernicus has not yet published the burnt perimeter, which takes a few days to measure on satellite imagery. For now the area is the one rebuilt from heat detections (about 14 hectares per pixel). When the perimeter arrives, this page picks it up on its own and keeps the same address.
Area with fire
≈ 238ha
rebuilt from hotspots, no official perimeter yet
Duration
8days
2 Oct 2026 – 9 Oct 2026
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
2 Oct
2026
Heat detections
18
in a single hotspot: 24 MW
Danger at start
14
Moderate · FWI index
Average daily power
17MW
detected power per day, on average
Where it burned
HOTSPOTS BY DAY
2 Oct9 Oct
Play back9 Oct 2026
How it evolved, day by day
3 Oct7 Oct
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
28°high
34km/h · peak gust
30%lowest humidity
It had gone 2 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 4.0 mm on 22 Sept.
What happened to each town
VasylkivkaВасильківський район31,920 inhabitants · 4.0 km from the centrewhere it started
238 hareached on 2 Oct
0.2 %
Area with fire inside each municipality, rebuilt from heat detections (about 14 hectares per VIIRS pixel). An estimate until the official perimeter arrives. 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.
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 Sept
23.8 °C
37 %
12 km/h
0.0 mm
Moderate 14
19 Sept
26.0 °C
30 %
19 km/h
0.0 mm
Moderate 21
20 Sept
27.5 °C
31 %
15 km/h
0.0 mm
Moderate 20
21 Sept
26.9 °C
34 %
34 km/h
1.0 mm
Moderate 21
22 Sept
20.4 °C
47 %
28 km/h
4.0 mm
Very low 4
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
↔
Before · 25 Sept 2026
After · 16 Oct 2026
Sentinel-2 did not pass over on that day. Try another date, or use false colour, which is daily.
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 19 September 2026 the air beside the fire reached 15 µg/m³ of PM2.5, but no daily average passed the WHO guideline (15).
PM2.5 peak15µg/m³
Days over the guideline0days
PM1019µg/m³
Optical depth0.32
16 Sept18 Sept20 Sept22 Sept
GoodFairModeratePoorVery poorExtremely 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 CSVTimes in UTC. Each detection is a 375 m pixel: a large fire yields hundreds per pass.
According to the heat detections seen by satellite, it burned from 2 October 2026 to 9 October 2026 (8 days between the first and the last detection). There is no perimeter yet to date it.
How much area did it burn?
There is no official perimeter yet. Heat detections rebuild about 238 hectares with fire (2.4 km²); Copernicus will publish the measured figure within days.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Vasylkivka (238 ha, 0.2 %).
Is the Vasylkivka fire still active?
No fire detections since 9 Oct 2026, 10:34 UTC. A lack of detections is not an official extinction.
Did the fire reach a town?
The fire started in Vasylkivka and came within 4.0 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 27.5 °C, humidity dropped to 30 % and gusts hit 34 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 21, 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.
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.
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 errorHow we know this›
No perimeter yet: the area (≈ 238 ha) is estimated by counting VIIRS pixels with fire, about 14 ha each.
Dates of the first and last VIIRS detection of the cluster. 18 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
Weather: Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, in cells of about 25 km.
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.