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TH · Thailand · –

Thoen fire, 12 March 2017 เถิน · Ban Dan Lan Hoi, Thoen, Thung Saliam

Out · last detection 15 Mar 2017, 18:48 UTC

The fire started on 12 March 2017 in Thoen, Thailand, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 1,149 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.

It is the 96th largest in Lampang Province since 2016 (of 135 with a page). Number 123 in Thailand in 2017, of 155.

The power measured by the satellite is low (9.7 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
1,149ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
4days
12 Mar 2017 – 15 Mar 2017
Municipalities hit
3
districts
Started on
12 Mar
2017
Heat detections
25
in a single hotspot: 10 MW
Danger at start
38
High · FWI index
Average daily power
30MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 12 Mar15 Mar
15 Mar 2017

How it evolved, day by day

13 Mar 2017 · 43 MW · 8 14 Mar 2017 · 33 MW · 11 15 Mar 2017 · 13 MW · 6
13 Mar 14 Mar 15 Mar

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

The weather it burned in

39°high
35km/h · peak gust
20%lowest humidity

It had gone 58 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

20% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 230 ha in 2016.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 0.7% of the area of London (11 km² against 1,583 km²).

London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).

This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.

What happened to each town

  1. Ban Dan Lan Hoi บ้านด่านลานหอย
    688 ha reached on 13 Mar
    0.7 %
  2. Thoen เถิน where it started
    404 ha reached on 13 Mar
    0.2 %
  3. Thung Saliam ทุ่งเสลี่ยม
    64 ha reached on 14 Mar
    0.1 %

Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the GWIS 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.

People and buildings inside the perimeter

GHSL 2015
Built-up area< 0.1 ha
Residents< 20

Inside the perimeter there was no noticeable built-up land and almost nobody lived there (GHSL 2015, 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.

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)
12 Mar 38.1 °C 27 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
13 Mar 39.1 °C 20 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
14 Mar 38.1 °C 27 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
15 Mar 38.0 °C 24 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
16 Mar after 36.9 °C 31 % 38 km/h 0.2 mm Very high 41
17 Mar after 35.6 °C 36 % 36 km/h 0.8 mm High 30
18 Mar after 36.2 °C 35 % 30 km/h 0.3 mm High 31
19 Mar after 37.5 °C 24 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
20 Mar after 38.1 °C 18 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
21 Mar after 37.6 °C 24 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
22 Mar after 37.6 °C 24 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
23 Mar after 37.3 °C 30 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
24 Mar after 38.2 °C 29 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
25 Mar after 37.3 °C 33 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 37

Its twins: fires that started in the same weather

It started with an FWI of 37.9, a minimum humidity of 27% and 58 days without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 40.

FWI at the start 37.9
Minimum humidity 27 %
Days without rain 58
this fire chosen twins rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar

Outlines of the closest twins

Si Satchanalai fire, March 2020
1,334 ha 17 days FWI 37.6 Min. humidity 29 % 36 km away, in 2020

First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 7.1 mm on 13 Apr.

What happened to them

11 days
median duration
1,508 ha
median area
100 %
went past 1,000 ha
3.2 mm
rain at the end (median; 18 of 40 had it)

It burned an area similar to its twins (1,149 ha against a median of 1,508 ha) and lasted 4 days, against 11 days.

In 22 of 40, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 3.2 mm.

This is a bank of analogues: it shows what usually happens, not what will happen. With fewer than 15 twins we give no figures. How we calculate it

How it ended

—first rain
—no rain in ten days
35km/h · max. gust

It was considered over on 15 Mar, and not even 1 mm fell in the following ten days: it went out without rain. Twins with rain when they ended: 18 of 40, with a median of 3.2 mm.

Weather on this page: Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Climate Change Service (ERA5)

How a twin is chosen

  • Same area: fires that have already ended, less than 250 km from this one, since 2016.
  • Same start: we compare the FWI on the first day, the minimum humidity that day and the run of days without rain before it. The slider sets how much they may differ.
  • Only pages with final weather data (ERA5 reanalysis) calculated in the same way as this fire’s; agricultural and grass burns and pages with data under review are left out.
  • Fires burning at the same time as this one (a week before or after) are left out: they share the same spell of weather and do not count as a precedent.
  • They are sorted by similarity, and the outlines of the first five are drawn.

How we calculate it

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 5 Mar 2017
After · 22 Mar 2017

If the day is cloudy, change the date: each satellite passes once a day. In false colour the burnt ground looks brown or red.

Detections table · 25Every 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 Thailand

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Thoen fire last?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 12 March 2017 to 15 March 2017 (4 days). The perimeter dates it from 13 March 2017 to 15 March 2017.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 1,149 hectares (11.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 3 municipalities: Ban Dan Lan Hoi (688 ha, 0.7 %); Thoen (404 ha, 0.2 %); Thung Saliam (64 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 39.1 °C, humidity dropped to 20 % and gusts hit 35 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 40, class Very high.
Where does this data come from?
From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Thailand (geoBoundaries). It is not an official report.
How did the fires that started in similar weather in this area end?
Fires less than 250 km away that started since 2016 with a similar FWI, humidity and dry spell: 40. Their median duration was 11 days and their median area 1,508 ha; 100 % went past 1,000 ha. In 22 of 40, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 3.2 mm.

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: 199 · 191 · Emergency number and official warnings

Satellite cross-check

History of this page · 1 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
  1. Start date: 13 March 2017 → 12 March 2017.

RSS Changes to this page With cross-checks and a citable version

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 199 · 191.

How we know this
  • Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery.
  • Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 13 March 2017 to 15 March 2017. 25 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 2015, 100 m cells), summed inside the perimeter: an estimate of what was there, not a damage count.

How we build fire pages: methodology

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.