Yablanitsa fire, October 2023 Ябланица · Lukovit, Yablanitsa
The fire started on 20 October 2023 in Yablanitsa, Bulgaria, and satellites saw it burning for 3 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 389 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 8th largest in Lovech since 2016 (of 52 with a page). Number 11 in Bulgaria in 2023, of 25.
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- Burnt area
- 389ha
- Copernicus perimeter
- Duration
- 3days
- 20 Oct 2023 – 22 Oct 2023
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- municipalities
- Started on
- 20 Oct
- 2023
- Heat detections
- 15
- in a single hotspot: 54 MW
- Danger at start
- 23
- High · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 210MW
- detected power per day, on average
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 3 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 3.1 mm on 26 Oct.
This area had burned before
35% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 135 ha in 2022.
What happened to each town
-
314 ha reached on 21 Oct0.7 %
-
75 ha reached on 20 Oct0.4 %
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
- Agricultural areas82 %
- Broadleaved forest11 %
- Scrub and transitional woodland7.5 %
Land cover inside the perimeter according to Corine Land Cover, as reported by Copernicus.
People and buildings inside the perimeter
GHSL 2025Inside the perimeter there was no noticeable 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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 21 Oct | 30.6 °C | 27 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 23 |
| 22 Oct | 27.5 °C | 36 % | 34 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 22 |
| 23 Oct after | 23.6 °C | 54 % | 21 km/h | 0.3 mm | Moderate 14 |
| 24 Oct after | 25.1 °C | 39 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 16 |
| 25 Oct after | 25.0 °C | 38 % | 46 km/h | 0.9 mm | Moderate 15 |
| 26 Oct after | 23.8 °C | 46 % | 42 km/h | 3.1 mm | Very low 5 |
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 23 October 2023 the air beside the fire reached 21 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 16: 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 · 15Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 789 haRoman Роман16 September 2019 · 3 days · 25 km away
- 864 haCherven Bryag Червен бряг7 September 2019 · 2 days · 26 km away
- 888 haCherven Bryag Червен брягJuly 2016 · 5 days · 27 km away
- 637 haCherven Bryag Червен брягAugust 2026 · 2 days · 27 km away
- 2,625 haCherven Bryag Червен бряг16 July 2024 · 5 days · 28 km away
- 1,541 haCherven Bryag Червен бряг15 July 2024 · 2 days · 28 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Yablanitsa fire last?
- According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 20 October 2023 to 22 October 2023 (3 days). The perimeter dates it from 21 October 2023 to 21 October 2023.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 389 hectares (3.9 km²). Official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Lukovit (314 ha, 0.7 %); Yablanitsa (75 ha, 0.4 %).
- Did the fire reach a town?
- The fire came within 8.4 km of the centre of Lukovit, the closest of the areas it touched. 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 30.6 °C, humidity dropped to 27 % and gusts hit 36 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 23, class High.
- Where does this data come from?
- From the EFFIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Bulgaria (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 · Emergency number and official warnings ›
Satellite cross-check
History of this page · 2 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
- Last day with fire: 21 October 2023 → 22 October 2023.
- Start date: 21 October 2023 → 20 October 2023.
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
How we know this
- Perimeter: EFFIS (Copernicus), mapped on satellite imagery.
- Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 21 October 2023 to 21 October 2023. 15 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.
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.