Hoon fire, 15 March 2025 Hoon
The fire started on 15 March 2025 in Hoon, Laos, and satellites saw it burning for 22 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,803 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 93th largest in Oudomxay since 2016 (of 241 with a page). Number 11 in Laos in 2025, of 51.
- Burnt area
- 3,803ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 22days
- 15 Mar 2025 – 5 Apr 2025
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- districts
- Started on
- 15 Mar
- 2025
- Heat detections
- 181
- in a single hotspot: 294 MW
- Danger at start
- 25
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 4.5GW
- 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 18 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 12.7 mm on 6 Apr.
This area had burned before
100% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 82 ha in 2016, 1,249 ha in 2017, 2,006 ha in 2018, 2,326 ha in 2019, 1,363 ha in 2020, 380 ha in 2021, 1,273 ha in 2022, 944 ha in 2023, 2,620 ha in 2024. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 3,805 ha that had burned before.
- 1,941 ha Hoon fire, April 2018 4,235 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,804 ha Hoon fire, March 2024 4,773 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,692 ha Hoon fire, March 2019 5,120 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,363 ha Hoon fire, March 2020 7,948 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,073 ha Hoon fire, April 2017 6,343 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 722 ha Hoon fire, February 2023 2,626 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 424 ha Hoon fire, March 2024 7,596 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 106 ha Hoon fire, March 2017 2,027 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Hoon where it started3,822 ha reached on 15 Mar1.8 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 15 Mar | 33.7 °C | 34 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 16 Mar | 31.7 °C | 43 % | 32 km/h | 0.3 mm | High 24 |
| 17 Mar | 29.5 °C | 46 % | 43 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 23 |
| 18 Mar | 23.8 °C | 66 % | 36 km/h | 0.1 mm | Moderate 15 |
| 19 Mar | 16.6 °C | 70 % | 28 km/h | 0.3 mm | Moderate 12 |
| 20 Mar | 24.4 °C | 48 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 14 |
| 21 Mar | 27.6 °C | 45 % | 16 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 16 |
| 22 Mar | 30.9 °C | 41 % | 21 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 18 |
| 23 Mar | 32.6 °C | 39 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 24 Mar | 33.7 °C | 31 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 25 Mar | 32.9 °C | 37 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 26 Mar | 33.4 °C | 32 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 27 Mar | 34.0 °C | 26 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 28 Mar | 34.0 °C | 29 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 29 Mar | 35.3 °C | 27 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 30 Mar | 31.7 °C | 47 % | 41 km/h | 0.3 mm | High 26 |
| 31 Mar | 30.0 °C | 49 % | 34 km/h | 0.3 mm | High 23 |
| 1 Apr | 27.4 °C | 56 % | 34 km/h | 1.1 mm | Moderate 11 |
| 2 Apr | 27.2 °C | 56 % | 22 km/h | 0.3 mm | Moderate 14 |
| 3 Apr | 30.4 °C | 48 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 17 |
| 4 Apr | 32.9 °C | 42 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 23 |
| 5 Apr | 31.5 °C | 49 % | 36 km/h | 1.2 mm | Moderate 15 |
| 6 Apr after | 25.6 °C | 75 % | 33 km/h | 12.7 mm | Very low 0 |
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 6 April 2025 the air beside the fire reached 374 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 178: 12 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 · 181Every 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 Hoon fire last?
- According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 15 March 2025 to 5 April 2025 (22 days). The perimeter dates it from 21 March 2025 to 3 April 2025.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 3,803 hectares (38.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Hoon (3,822 ha, 1.8 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 35.3 °C, humidity dropped to 26 % and gusts hit 43 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 33, 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.