Kanpetlet fire, March 2025 Kanpetlet, Sidoktaya
The fire started on 7 March 2025 in Kanpetlet, Myanmar, and satellites saw it burning for 30 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 19,991 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 8th largest in Chin since 2016 (of 242 with a page). Number 3 in Myanmar in 2025, of 135.
Compare with…
- Burnt area
- 19,991ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 30days
- 7 Mar 2025 – 5 Apr 2025
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- municipalities
- Started on
- 7 Mar
- 2025
- Heat detections
- 873
- in a single hotspot: 181 MW
- Danger at start
- 44
- Very high · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 146MW
- 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 more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 5.7 mm on 7 Apr.
This area had burned before
93% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 6,039 ha in 2016, 7,300 ha in 2017, 3,761 ha in 2018, 9,807 ha in 2019, 8,734 ha in 2020, 11,656 ha in 2021, 1,607 ha in 2022, 8,646 ha in 2023, 10,935 ha in 2024. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 18,597 ha that had burned before.
- 10,707 ha Kanpetlet fire, February 2021 19,378 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 9,091 ha Kanpetlet fire, March 2024 17,031 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 8,094 ha Sidoktaya fire, March 2019 29,536 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 4,608 ha Kanpetlet fire, March 2020 18,538 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,883 ha Kanpetlet fire, March 2020 3,527 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,858 ha Sidoktaya fire, March 2017 16,167 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,081 ha Kanpetlet fire, February 2023 2,967 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,047 ha Kanpetlet fire, March 2016 2,173 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
-
Kanpetlet where it started18,526 ha reached on 7 Mar7.4 %
-
1,549 ha reached on 9 Mar0.6 %
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 were about 0.02 hectares of built-up land and about 50 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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 7 Mar | 32.5 °C | 20 % | 49 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 8 Mar | 32.1 °C | 19 % | 47 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 9 Mar | 32.4 °C | 23 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 10 Mar | 33.8 °C | 22 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 11 Mar | 34.4 °C | 16 % | 49 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 12 Mar | 33.9 °C | 20 % | 49 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 13 Mar | 34.6 °C | 22 % | 52 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 14 Mar | 34.8 °C | 21 % | 49 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 15 Mar | 35.3 °C | 22 % | 48 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 16 Mar | 36.8 °C | 18 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 17 Mar | 36.4 °C | 18 % | 55 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 50 |
| 18 Mar | 34.6 °C | 20 % | 58 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 19 Mar | 35.8 °C | 21 % | 51 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 20 Mar | 36.3 °C | 19 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 21 Mar | 33.4 °C | 27 % | 43 km/h | 0.2 mm | Very high 42 |
| 22 Mar | 34.5 °C | 23 % | 50 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 23 Mar | 33.9 °C | 24 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 24 Mar | 33.3 °C | 27 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 25 Mar | 32.9 °C | 22 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 26 Mar | 34.9 °C | 22 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 27 Mar | 34.6 °C | 17 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 28 Mar | 32.9 °C | 24 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 29 Mar | 34.2 °C | 24 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 30 Mar | 35.0 °C | 22 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 31 Mar | 35.0 °C | 17 % | 53 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 1 Apr | 34.6 °C | 18 % | 49 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 2 Apr | 35.7 °C | 22 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 3 Apr | 36.9 °C | 22 % | 48 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 4 Apr | 34.2 °C | 28 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 5 Apr | 34.1 °C | 33 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 6 Apr after | 31.7 °C | 33 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 7 Apr after | 31.2 °C | 40 % | 28 km/h | 5.7 mm | Very low 5 |
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 28 March 2025 the air beside the fire reached 76 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 62: 4.1 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 · 873Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 19,378 haKanpetlet25 February 2021 · 38 days · 3 km away
- 17,031 haKanpetletMarch 2024 · 23 days · 3 km away
- 29,536 haSidoktaya9 March 2019 · 45 days · 8 km away
- 24,764 haKanpetlet20 March 2020 · 30 days · 9 km away
- 18,538 haKanpetlet9 March 2020 · 40 days · 11 km away
- 54,708 haSidoktaya1 April 2023 · 29 days · 24 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Kanpetlet fire last?
- According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 7 March 2025 to 5 April 2025 (30 days). The perimeter dates it from 14 March 2025 to 29 March 2025.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 19,991 hectares (199.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Kanpetlet (18,526 ha, 7.4 %); Sidoktaya (1,549 ha, 0.6 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 36.9 °C, humidity dropped to 16 % and gusts hit 58 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 51, class Extreme.
- Where does this data come from?
- From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Myanmar (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 March 2025 → 5 April 2025.
- Start date: 14 March 2025 → 7 March 2025.
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 14 March 2025 to 29 March 2025. 873 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 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.