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Kaoh Nheaek fire, 4 January 2019 Kaoh Nheaek, Sambour

Out · last detection 8 Feb 2019, 18:18 UTC

The fire started on 4 January 2019 in Kaoh Nheaek, Cambodia, and satellites saw it burning for 36 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,680 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 65th largest in Mondulkiri since 2016 (of 112 with a page). Number 41 in Cambodia in 2019, of 66.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Kaoh Nheaek · 2018Sambour · 2016Kaoh Nheaek · 2025Sesan · 2017

Burnt area
2,680ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
36days
4 Jan 2019 – 8 Feb 2019
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
4 Jan
2019
Heat detections
294
in a single hotspot: 168 MW
Danger at start
32
High · FWI index
Average daily power
68MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 4 Jan8 Feb
8 Feb 2019

How it evolved, day by day

6 Jan 2019 · 66 MW · 9 7 Jan 2019 · 17 MW · 4 9 Jan 2019 · 2 MW · 2 10 Jan 2019 · 1 MW · 2 11 Jan 2019 · 113 MW · 14 12 Jan 2019 · 3 MW · 3 13 Jan 2019 · 17 MW · 9 14 Jan 2019 · 13 MW · 7 15 Jan 2019 · 24 MW · 4 16 Jan 2019 · 5 MW · 3 17 Jan 2019 · 139 MW · 13 18 Jan 2019 · 8 MW · 5 19 Jan 2019 · 31 MW · 5 20 Jan 2019 · 22 MW · 5 21 Jan 2019 · 14 MW · 3 22 Jan 2019 · 162 MW · 14 23 Jan 2019 · 2 MW · 2 24 Jan 2019 · 55 MW · 10 25 Jan 2019 · 513 MW · 43 26 Jan 2019 · 409 MW · 31 27 Jan 2019 · 113 MW · 21 28 Jan 2019 · 84 MW · 16 29 Jan 2019 · 9 MW · 3 30 Jan 2019 · 41 MW · 12 31 Jan 2019 · 33 MW · 5 1 Feb 2019 · 146 MW · 16 2 Feb 2019 · 48 MW · 4 3 Feb 2019 · 9 MW · 2 4 Feb 2019 · 1 MW · 2 5 Feb 2019 · 53 MW · 4 6 Feb 2019 · 25 MW · 6 7 Feb 2019 · 56 MW · 9 8 Feb 2019 · 22 MW · 6
6 Jan 12 Jan 17 Jan 22 Jan 25 Jan 27 Jan 1 Feb 6 Feb

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

The weather it burned in

36°high
50km/h · peak gust
21%lowest humidity

It had gone 13 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

79% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 608 ha in 2016, 2,222 ha in 2018. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,118 ha that had burned before.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 1.7% of the area of London (27 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. Kaoh Nheaek where it started
    2,454 ha reached on 6 Jan
    0.5 %
  2. Sambour
    245 ha reached on 6 Jan
    0.0 %

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 2020
Built-up area< 0.1 ha
Residents< 20

Inside the perimeter there was no noticeable built-up land and almost nobody lived there (GHSL 2020, 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.

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)
10 Jan 36.2 °C 30 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
11 Jan 36.4 °C 32 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
12 Jan 36.1 °C 32 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
13 Jan 36.4 °C 28 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
14 Jan 36.0 °C 25 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
15 Jan 36.2 °C 24 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
16 Jan 35.3 °C 35 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
17 Jan 34.6 °C 37 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
18 Jan 35.2 °C 28 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
19 Jan 35.6 °C 30 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
20 Jan 36.3 °C 28 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
21 Jan 35.7 °C 31 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
22 Jan 34.9 °C 29 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
23 Jan 33.8 °C 28 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
24 Jan 33.8 °C 21 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
25 Jan 33.8 °C 25 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
26 Jan 34.3 °C 28 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
27 Jan 34.0 °C 29 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
28 Jan 34.5 °C 27 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
29 Jan 34.7 °C 30 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
30 Jan 35.7 °C 28 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
31 Jan 35.4 °C 28 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
1 Feb 35.1 °C 23 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
2 Feb 36.4 °C 26 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
3 Feb 37.7 °C 28 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
4 Feb 37.1 °C 32 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
5 Feb 36.5 °C 34 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
6 Feb 36.5 °C 33 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
7 Feb 37.3 °C 31 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
8 Feb 38.4 °C 32 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
9 Feb after 38.0 °C 30 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
10 Feb after 38.6 °C 25 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
11 Feb after 38.7 °C 13 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
12 Feb after 36.6 °C 29 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 28 Dec 2018
After · 15 Feb 2019

If the day is cloudy, change the date: each satellite passes once a day. In false colour the burnt ground looks brown or red.

Detections table · 294Every 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 Cambodia ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Kaoh Nheaek fire last?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 4 January 2019 to 8 February 2019 (36 days). The perimeter dates it from 10 January 2019 to 2 February 2019.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 2,680 hectares (26.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Kaoh Nheaek (2,454 ha, 0.5 %); Sambour (245 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.4 °C, humidity dropped to 21 % and gusts hit 50 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 45, 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.
  1. Last day with fire: 2 February 2019 → 8 February 2019.
  2. Start date: 10 January 2019 → 4 January 2019.

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.

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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 10 January 2019 to 2 February 2019. 294 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 2020, 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 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.