Kaev Seima fire, 14 January 2026 Kaev Seima, Pech Chreada
The fire started on 14 January 2026 in Kaev Seima, Cambodia, and satellites saw it burning for 22 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 6,724 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 12th largest in Mondulkiri since 2016 (of 112 with a page). Number 17 in Cambodia in 2026, of 118.
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- Burnt area
- 6,724ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 22days
- 14 Jan 2026 – 4 Feb 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- districts
- Started on
- 14 Jan
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 164
- in a single hotspot: 65 MW
- Danger at start
- 25
- High · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 87MW
- detected power per day, on average
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 19 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
88% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,181 ha in 2016, 2,343 ha in 2017, 4,321 ha in 2018, 2,155 ha in 2019, 232 ha in 2021, 3,665 ha in 2023, 21 ha in 2024, 3,900 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 5,949 ha that had burned before.
- 2,503 ha Kaev Seima fire, December 2018 3,072 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,480 ha Kaev Seima fire, December 2024 5,511 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,155 ha Kaev Seima fire, December 2019 4,846 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,109 ha Kaev Seima fire, December 2023 3,340 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,380 ha Pech Chreada fire, February 2017 3,034 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,073 ha Kaev Seima fire, January 2023 2,217 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 963 ha Kaev Seima fire, January 2017 2,559 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 764 ha Pech Chreada fire, January 2016 24,939 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
How big is it?
London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).
Paris boundary: geoBoundaries · Institut national de l'information géographique et forestière (IGN-F) (Etalab Open License 2.0).
Madrid boundary: geoBoundaries · Open Data ESRI, IGN Central Registry of Cartography Area (CC BY 4.0).
Berlin boundary: geoBoundaries · Federal Agency for Cartography and Geodesy (dl-de/by-2-0).
This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.
What happened to each town
-
Kaev Seima where it started6,604 ha reached on 14 Jan2.3 %
-
167 ha reached on 20 Jan0.0 %
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 2025Inside the perimeter there was no noticeable built-up land and almost nobody lived there (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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 14 Jan | 33.3 °C | 35 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 15 Jan | 33.6 °C | 38 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 16 Jan | 33.7 °C | 33 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 17 Jan | 33.6 °C | 37 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 18 Jan | 32.8 °C | 39 % | 22 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 25 |
| 19 Jan | 33.6 °C | 31 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 20 Jan | 33.0 °C | 32 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 21 Jan | 32.1 °C | 31 % | 48 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 22 Jan | 31.5 °C | 36 % | 49 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 23 Jan | 31.2 °C | 37 % | 55 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 24 Jan | 32.4 °C | 35 % | 48 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 25 Jan | 33.0 °C | 31 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 26 Jan | 32.8 °C | 33 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 27 Jan | 32.9 °C | 33 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 28 Jan | 31.9 °C | 38 % | 49 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 29 Jan | 33.7 °C | 30 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 30 Jan | 33.5 °C | 35 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 31 Jan | 33.0 °C | 37 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 1 Feb | 33.0 °C | 31 % | 49 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 2 Feb | 32.7 °C | 37 % | 55 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 3 Feb | 31.7 °C | 46 % | 58 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 4 Feb | 34.0 °C | 37 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 5 Feb after | 34.4 °C | 39 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 6 Feb after | 34.1 °C | 41 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 7 Feb after | 33.1 °C | 46 % | 32 km/h | 0.4 mm | High 30 |
| 8 Feb after | 34.2 °C | 31 % | 51 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 9 Feb after | 34.8 °C | 32 % | 60 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 10 Feb after | 35.5 °C | 34 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 11 Feb after | 30.6 °C | 56 % | 37 km/h | 0.4 mm | High 27 |
| 12 Feb after | 35.2 °C | 34 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 13 Feb after | 36.3 °C | 24 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 14 Feb after | 36.7 °C | 25 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
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 30 January 2026 the air beside the fire reached 41 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 20: 1.3 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 · 164Every 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 Kaev Seima fire last?
- According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 14 January 2026 to 4 February 2026 (22 days). The perimeter dates it from 20 January 2026 to 29 January 2026.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 6,724 hectares (67.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Kaev Seima (6,604 ha, 2.3 %); Pech Chreada (167 ha, 0.0 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 34.0 °C, humidity dropped to 30 % and gusts hit 58 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 42, class Very high.
- Where does this data come from?
- From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Cambodia (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 · 2 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
- Last day with fire: 29 January 2026 → 4 February 2026.
- Start date: 20 January 2026 → 14 January 2026.
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
How we know this
- Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery; 2 polygons grouped in this page.
- Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 20 January 2026 to 29 January 2026. 164 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.
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 4.0 International (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.