Skip to content
worldfires
en
LA · Laos · →

Feuang fire, March 2023 Mad, Feuang

Out · last detection 4 Apr 2023, 07:03 UTC

The fire started on 15 March 2023 in Feuang, Laos, and satellites saw it burning for 21 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,999 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 34th largest in Vientiane since 2016 (of 87 with a page). Number 73 in Laos in 2023, of 239.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Mad · 2020Feuang · 2019Parklai · 2023Hinherb · 2023

Burnt area
3,999ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
21days
15 Mar 2023 – 4 Apr 2023
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
15 Mar
2023
Heat detections
260
in a single hotspot: 323 MW
Danger at start
15
Moderate · FWI index
Average daily power
315MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 15 Mar4 Apr
4 Apr 2023

How it evolved, day by day

15 Mar 2023 · 3 MW · 1 17 Mar 2023 · 1,656 MW · 29 18 Mar 2023 · 701 MW · 23 21 Mar 2023 · 65 MW · 5 22 Mar 2023 · 7 MW · 2 23 Mar 2023 · 100 MW · 15 24 Mar 2023 · 1,420 MW · 54 25 Mar 2023 · 402 MW · 43 26 Mar 2023 · 216 MW · 25 27 Mar 2023 · 379 MW · 14 28 Mar 2023 · 249 MW · 7 29 Mar 2023 · 66 MW · 4 30 Mar 2023 · 42 MW · 3 31 Mar 2023 · 259 MW · 8 1 Apr 2023 · 26 MW · 5 2 Apr 2023 · 42 MW · 10 3 Apr 2023 · 21 MW · 10 4 Apr 2023 · 15 MW · 2
15 Mar 17 Mar 21 Mar 24 Mar 27 Mar 30 Mar 2 Apr

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

The weather it burned in

40°high
38km/h · peak gust
22%lowest humidity

It had gone one day without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

66% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 968 ha in 2016, 70 ha in 2017, 2,873 ha in 2019, 1,591 ha in 2020. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,632 ha that had burned before.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 2.5% of the area of London (40 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. Mad
    2,920 ha
    1.9 %
  2. Feuang where it started
    1,100 ha
    1.3 %

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 2025
Built-up area0.13 ha
Residents≈ 30

Inside the perimeter there were about 0.13 hectares of built-up land and about 30 residents (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)
15 Mar 34.5 °C 36 % 18 km/h 0.1 mm Moderate 15
16 Mar 32.2 °C 45 % 27 km/h 0.1 mm Moderate 16
17 Mar 34.5 °C 41 % 23 km/h 1.0 mm Moderate 13
18 Mar 35.7 °C 43 % 24 km/h 2.2 mm Low 8
19 Mar 36.0 °C 42 % 24 km/h 1.9 mm Low 8
20 Mar 37.0 °C 38 % 26 km/h 0.1 mm Moderate 17
21 Mar 38.0 °C 34 % 35 km/h 1.8 mm Moderate 16
22 Mar 38.7 °C 26 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
23 Mar 39.1 °C 25 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
24 Mar 38.6 °C 27 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
25 Mar 39.5 °C 22 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
26 Mar 38.0 °C 27 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
27 Mar 36.3 °C 39 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
28 Mar 35.3 °C 45 % 35 km/h 0.4 mm High 25
29 Mar 33.5 °C 57 % 33 km/h 1.0 mm Moderate 14
30 Mar 34.9 °C 45 % 30 km/h 1.0 mm Moderate 14
31 Mar 36.9 °C 36 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
1 Apr 37.6 °C 34 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
2 Apr 39.1 °C 23 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
3 Apr 38.9 °C 24 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
4 Apr 38.7 °C 25 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
5 Apr after 38.9 °C 24 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
6 Apr after 38.4 °C 28 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
7 Apr after 37.0 °C 37 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
8 Apr after 35.5 °C 51 % 35 km/h 0.3 mm High 27
9 Apr after 35.7 °C 45 % 31 km/h 0.1 mm High 25
10 Apr after 38.4 °C 40 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
11 Apr after 40.2 °C 33 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
12 Apr after 40.7 °C 29 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
13 Apr after 39.4 °C 36 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
14 Apr after 40.6 °C 33 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 33

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 8 Mar 2023
After · 11 Apr 2023

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 6 April 2023 the air beside the fire reached 646 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 318: 21 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak646 µg/m³
Days over the guideline26 days
PM10922 µg/m³
Optical depth3.98
131415161718192021222324252627282930311234567
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 · 260Every 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 Laos ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Feuang fire last?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 15 March 2023 to 4 April 2023 (21 days). The perimeter dates it from 17 March 2023 to 28 March 2023.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 3,999 hectares (40.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Mad (2,920 ha, 1.9 %); Feuang (1,100 ha, 1.3 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 39.5 °C, humidity dropped to 22 % and gusts hit 38 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 37, 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

History of this page Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.

No changes since 24 October 2026.

RSS Changes to this page

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.

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 17 March 2023 to 28 March 2023. 260 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.

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.