Falam fire, 11 April 2026 Falam
The fire started on 11 April 2026 in Falam, Myanmar (Burma), and satellites saw it burning for 5 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,889 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 77th largest in Chin since 2016 (of 244 with a page). Number 154 in Myanmar (Burma) in 2026, of 418.
- Burnt area
- 3,889ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 5days
- 11 Apr 2026 – 15 Apr 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- municipalities
- Started on
- 11 Apr
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 64
- in a single hotspot: 81 MW
- Danger at start
- 27
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 989MW
- 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 one day without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
86% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,790 ha in 2016, 742 ha in 2017, 306 ha in 2019, 1,911 ha in 2020, 1,558 ha in 2023, 1,735 ha in 2024, 2,292 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 3,357 ha that had burned before.
- 2,292 ha Falam fire, March 2025 4,585 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,911 ha Falam fire, March 2020 3,397 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,790 ha Falam fire, March 2016 2,816 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,527 ha Falam fire, April 2023 2,332 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Falam where it started3,903 ha reached on 11 Apr1.5 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 11 Apr | 31.5 °C | 26 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 12 Apr | 33.1 °C | 23 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 13 Apr | 33.7 °C | 30 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 14 Apr | 35.3 °C | 25 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 15 Apr | 34.8 °C | 24 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 16 Apr after | 33.5 °C | 28 % | 22 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 29 |
| 17 Apr after | 34.3 °C | 33 % | 19 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 18 Apr after | 34.3 °C | 35 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 19 Apr after | 33.8 °C | 35 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 20 Apr after | 36.2 °C | 26 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 21 Apr after | 35.3 °C | 29 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 22 Apr after | 36.2 °C | 28 % | 35 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 33 |
| 23 Apr after | 35.5 °C | 27 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 24 Apr after | 37.3 °C | 29 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 25 Apr after | 35.2 °C | 36 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
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 17 April 2026 the air beside the fire reached 141 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 89: 5.9 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 · 64Every 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 Falam fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 11 April 2026 and 15 April 2026: 5 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 3,889 hectares (38.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Falam (3,903 ha, 1.5 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 35.3 °C, humidity dropped to 23 % and gusts hit 35 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 31, class High.
- Where does this data come from?
- From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Myanmar (Burma) (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 ADM3 (Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC BY 4.0)). 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.