Add fire, April 2026 Add, Xamneua
The fire started on 2 April 2026 in Add, Laos, and satellites saw it burning for 17 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 17,955 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 4th largest in Houaphan since 2016 (of 132 with a page). Number 16 in Laos in 2026, of 287.
- Burnt area
- 17,955ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 17days
- 2 Apr 2026 – 18 Apr 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- districts
- Started on
- 2 Apr
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 432
- in a single hotspot: 176 MW
- Danger at start
- 17
- Moderate · FWI index
- Energy released
- 7.1GW
- 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 7 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 8.2 mm on 19 Apr.
This area had burned before
66% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,586 ha in 2016, 2,780 ha in 2017, 2,852 ha in 2018, 4,103 ha in 2019, 2,862 ha in 2020, 2,136 ha in 2021, 266 ha in 2022, 3,549 ha in 2023, 3,432 ha in 2024. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 11,780 ha that had burned before.
- 3,432 ha Add fire, April 2024 4,100 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,931 ha Add fire, April 2023 6,063 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,885 ha Add fire, April 2019 3,165 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,780 ha Add fire, April 2017 3,202 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,136 ha Add fire, March 2021 2,188 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,119 ha Add fire, April 2018 2,306 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,817 ha Add fire, March 2020 2,460 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,218 ha Add fire, April 2019 3,742 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Add where it started17,512 ha reached on 2 Apr17 %
-
197 ha reached on 4 Apr0.1 %
Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the GWIS 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.
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 Apr | 30.7 °C | 43 % | 50 km/h | 0.1 mm | Moderate 17 |
| 3 Apr | 33.0 °C | 36 % | 52 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 4 Apr | 32.1 °C | 40 % | 48 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 19 |
| 5 Apr | 31.1 °C | 43 % | 53 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 6 Apr | 31.9 °C | 43 % | 50 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 7 Apr | 31.8 °C | 43 % | 48 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 22 |
| 8 Apr | 33.5 °C | 30 % | 45 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 24 |
| 9 Apr | 32.9 °C | 33 % | 51 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 10 Apr | 31.9 °C | 36 % | 54 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 11 Apr | 32.1 °C | 36 % | 57 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 12 Apr | 32.4 °C | 33 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 13 Apr | 33.5 °C | 34 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 14 Apr | 32.1 °C | 39 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 15 Apr | 33.0 °C | 36 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 16 Apr | 33.6 °C | 30 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 17 Apr | 32.5 °C | 36 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 18 Apr | 30.5 °C | 50 % | 32 km/h | 0.2 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 19 Apr after | 27.2 °C | 63 % | 39 km/h | 8.2 mm | Very low 1 |
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 14 April 2026 the air beside the fire reached 190 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 125: 8.3 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 · 432Every 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 Add fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 2 April 2026 and 18 April 2026: 17 days between the first and last heat detection of the perimeter.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 17,955 hectares (179.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Add (17,512 ha, 17 %); Xamneua (197 ha, 0.1 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 33.6 °C, humidity dropped to 30 % and gusts hit 57 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 29, class High.
- Where does this data come from?
- From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Laos (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.
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 comes from the Copernicus Global Wildfire Information System (GWIS), which rebuilds it from MODIS and VIIRS heat detections and publishes it under CC BY 4.0. It is not measured on imagery as in Europe, so it is an estimate. 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 3.0 Intergovernmental Organisations (CC BY 3.0 IGO)). The area per municipality is computed by WorldFires by crossing the perimeter with those boundaries, so it may differ from each country’s official figure.