VORTA fire, March 2026 VORTA, LUNCOIU DE JOS
The fire started on 14 March 2026 in VORTA, Romania, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 225 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 29th largest in Hunedoara since 2016 (of 72 with a page). Number 24 in Romania in 2026, of 59.
The power measured by the satellite is low (5.9 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.
- Burnt area
- 225ha
- Copernicus perimeter
- Duration
- 1day
- 14 Mar 2026 – 14 Mar 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- municipalities
- Started on
- 14 Mar
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 3
- in a single hotspot: 6 MW
- Danger at start
- 14
- Moderate · FWI index
- Energy released
- 12MW
- sum of detected power
Where it burned
How it evolved, day by day
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
It had gone 17 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
93% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 37 ha in 2020, 62 ha in 2021, 102 ha in 2022, 23 ha in 2023, 124 ha in 2024, 155 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 210 ha that had burned before.
- 155 ha VORTA fire, February 2025 947 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 104 ha VORTA fire, February 2024 132 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 23 ha VORTA fire, March 2022 132 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
VORTA where it started217 ha reached on 13 Mar2.1 %
-
8 ha0.2 %
Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the official perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance is from the town centre to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.
What burned
- Other natural land53 %
- Broadleaved forest47 %
Land cover inside the perimeter according to Corine Land Cover, as reported by Copernicus.
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 14 Mar | 16.7 °C | 16 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 14 |
| 15 Mar after | 14.3 °C | 23 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 13 |
| 16 Mar after | 14.0 °C | 12 % | 18 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 12 |
| 17 Mar after | 14.0 °C | 21 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 13 |
| 18 Mar after | 12.5 °C | 25 % | 49 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 17 |
| 19 Mar after | 9.3 °C | 33 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 12 |
| 20 Mar after | 9.0 °C | 35 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 11 |
| 21 Mar after | 11.4 °C | 26 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 12 |
| 22 Mar after | 13.6 °C | 31 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 13 |
| 23 Mar after | 12.8 °C | 35 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 10 |
| 24 Mar after | 14.4 °C | 32 % | 18 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 10 |
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
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 · CopernicusOn 16 March 2026 the air beside the fire reached 22 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 15: 1.0 times the WHO daily guideline (15).
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 · 3Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the VORTA fire last?
- Copernicus dates it between 14 March 2026 and 14 March 2026: 1 day between the first and last image with fire.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 225 hectares (2.2 km²). Official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: VORTA (217 ha, 2.1 %); LUNCOIU DE JOS (8 ha, 0.2 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 16.7 °C, humidity dropped to 16 % and gusts hit 29 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 14, class Moderate.
- Where does this data come from?
- From the EFFIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Romania (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: 112
Satellite cross-check
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
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.