Kham fire, March 2025 Kham
The fire started on 25 March 2025 in Kham, Laos, and satellites saw it burning for 5 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,827 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 60th largest in Xiangkhouang since 2016 (of 107 with a page). Number 21 in Laos in 2025, of 51.
- Burnt area
- 2,827ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 5days
- 25 Mar 2025 – 29 Mar 2025
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- districts
- Started on
- 25 Mar
- 2025
- Heat detections
- 76
- in a single hotspot: 607 MW
- Danger at start
- 18
- Moderate · FWI index
- Energy released
- 3.9GW
- 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 11 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 7.9 mm on 5 Apr.
This area had burned before
60% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 163 ha in 2017, 46 ha in 2018, 1,150 ha in 2020, 445 ha in 2023, 355 ha in 2024. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 1,705 ha that had burned before.
What happened to each town
-
Kham where it started2,842 ha reached on 25 Mar1.4 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 25 Mar | 28.3 °C | 39 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 18 |
| 26 Mar | 27.9 °C | 43 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 19 |
| 27 Mar | 29.5 °C | 30 % | 47 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 28 Mar | 29.8 °C | 34 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 19 |
| 29 Mar | 26.6 °C | 61 % | 36 km/h | 0.6 mm | Moderate 13 |
| 30 Mar after | 23.3 °C | 62 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 11 |
| 31 Mar after | 24.7 °C | 53 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 11 |
| 1 Apr after | 20.3 °C | 58 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 12 |
| 2 Apr after | 21.3 °C | 54 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 12 |
| 3 Apr after | 25.2 °C | 46 % | 22 km/h | 0.4 mm | Moderate 12 |
| 4 Apr after | 27.8 °C | 46 % | 35 km/h | 0.2 mm | Moderate 15 |
| 5 Apr after | 27.0 °C | 53 % | 33 km/h | 7.9 mm | Very low 1 |
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 27 March 2025 the air beside the fire reached 292 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 161: 11 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 · 76Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 13,571 haKham15 March 2026 · 29 days · 15 km away
- 23,228 haPhookood14 March 2023 · 33 days · 24 km away
- 30,665 haHuameuang26 March 2026 · 25 days · 32 km away
- 9,972 haHuameuang9 April 2018 · 6 days · 33 km away
- 11,637 haPhookood21 March 2025 · 10 days · 34 km away
- 26,992 haHuameuang3 April 2023 · 20 days · 35 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Kham fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 25 March 2025 and 29 March 2025: 5 days between the first and last heat detection of the perimeter.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 2,827 hectares (28.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Kham (2,842 ha, 1.4 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 29.8 °C, humidity dropped to 30 % and gusts hit 47 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 22, 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.