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Ziros fire, August 2025 Ζηρού · Ziros, Arta

Out · last detection 14 Aug 2025, 01:10 UTC

The fire started on 12 August 2025 in Ziros, Greece, and satellites saw it burning for 3 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 5,821 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the largest fire in Epirus since 2016 (of 19 with a page). Number 3 in Greece in 2025, of 43.

Burnt area
5,821ha
Copernicus perimeter
Duration
3days
12 Aug 2025 – 14 Aug 2025
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
12 Aug
2025
Heat detections
281
in a single hotspot: 124 MW
Danger at start
67
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
3.8GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

14 Aug 2025
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 12 Aug14 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

121314

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

The weather it burned in

37°high
62km/h · peak gust
20%lowest humidity

It had gone 13 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.4 mm on 19 Aug.

This area had burned before

2% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 97 ha in 2023.

What happened to each town

  1. Ziros Ζηρού where it started
    3,752 ha reached on 12 Aug
    11 %
  2. Arta δημοτική ενότητα Αρταίων 26,517 inhabitants · 9.9 km from the town
    2,079 ha reached on 12 Aug
    5.3 %

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

  • Agricultural areas30 %
  • Other natural land28 %
  • Sclerophyllous scrub18 %
  • Scrub and transitional woodland12 %
  • Broadleaved forest5.9 %
  • Artificial surfaces5.5 %
  • Coniferous forest0.5 %

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

Checked against the press

Checked on 30 September 2026

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

Also known as
Φωτιά στην Πρέβεζα · Πρέβεζα–Άρτα · Ζηρός-Άρτα
According to the sources, several fires that ended up merging:
  • Municipio de Ziros 12 August 2025
  • Norte de Arta (Kampi 12 August 2025

Sources

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)
12 Aug 36.7 °C 20 % 62 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 67
13 Aug 35.3 °C 22 % 56 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 69
14 Aug 34.5 °C 25 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
15 Aug after 33.7 °C 24 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
16 Aug after 33.6 °C 21 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
17 Aug after 33.3 °C 24 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
18 Aug after 32.6 °C 33 % 41 km/h 0.8 mm High 29
19 Aug after 32.3 °C 30 % 35 km/h 1.4 mm High 28

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 5 Aug 2025
After · 21 Aug 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 14 August 2025 the air beside the fire reached 69 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 26: 1.7 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak69 µg/m³
Days over the guideline2 days
PM1074 µg/m³
Optical depth0.70
1011121314151617
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 · 281Every 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 Greece ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Ziros fire last?
Copernicus dates it between 12 August 2025 and 14 August 2025: 3 days between the first and last image with fire.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 5,821 hectares (58.2 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Ziros (3,752 ha, 11 %); Arta (2,079 ha, 5.3 %).
Did the fire reach a town?
The closest fire to a town centre came within 9.9 km of Arta. That is the distance to the perimeter or nearest hotspot; it does not mean it entered the houses.
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.7 °C, humidity dropped to 20 % and gusts hit 62 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 69, class Extreme.
Where does this data come from?
From the EFFIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Greece (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 · 199

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
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 112 · 199.

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 ADM3 (CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication). 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.