Kuleaen fire, February 2017 Kuleaen, Svay Leu
The fire started on 5 February 2017 in Kuleaen, Cambodia, and satellites saw it burning for 18 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,163 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 16th largest in Preah Vihear since 2016 (of 82 with a page). Number 17 in Cambodia in 2017, of 57.
- Burnt area
- 4,163ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 18days
- 5 Feb 2017 – 22 Feb 2017
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- districts
- Started on
- 5 Feb
- 2017
- Heat detections
- 358
- in a single hotspot: 92 MW
- Danger at start
- 24
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 1.8GW
- 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 19 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 2.8 mm on 23 Feb.
This area had burned before
58% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,757 ha in 2016. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,396 ha that had burned before.
What happened to each town
-
Kuleaen where it started3,810 ha reached on 29 Jan1.7 %
-
379 ha reached on 29 Jan0.2 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5 Feb | 34.4 °C | 28 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 6 Feb | 34.2 °C | 23 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 7 Feb | 35.3 °C | 26 % | 19 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 23 |
| 8 Feb | 34.8 °C | 33 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 23 |
| 9 Feb | 34.4 °C | 34 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 10 Feb | 33.3 °C | 41 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 11 Feb | 32.7 °C | 41 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 12 Feb | 30.7 °C | 39 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 13 Feb | 30.4 °C | 39 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 14 Feb | 31.7 °C | 35 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 15 Feb | 31.6 °C | 38 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 16 Feb | 32.3 °C | 36 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 17 Feb | 33.4 °C | 29 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 18 Feb | 33.5 °C | 38 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 19 Feb | 34.3 °C | 37 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 20 Feb | 36.1 °C | 33 % | 18 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 21 Feb | 35.8 °C | 43 % | 17 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 22 Feb | 35.2 °C | 49 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 23 Feb after | 35.2 °C | 49 % | 22 km/h | 2.8 mm | Low 7 |
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.
Detections table · 358Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 11,114 haSvay Leu24 December 2019 · 18 days · 10 km away
- 8,281 haKuleaen7 February 2026 · 15 days · 16 km away
- 4,651 haSvay Leu22 December 2019 · 15 days · 27 km away
- 12,152 haChoam Ksant14 January 2019 · 36 days · 32 km away
- 7,677 haTrapeang PrasatApril 2016 · 12 days · 32 km away
- 8,434 haTrapeang PrasatMarch 2019 · 7 days · 33 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Kuleaen fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 5 February 2017 and 22 February 2017: 18 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 4,163 hectares (41.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Kuleaen (3,810 ha, 1.7 %); Svay Leu (379 ha, 0.2 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 36.1 °C, humidity dropped to 23 % and gusts hit 38 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 27, class 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
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 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.