Skip to content
worldfires
LA · Laos · →

Lamarm fire, March 2026 Lamarm, Dakcheung

Out · last detection 9 Apr 2026, 06:24 UTC

The fire started on 26 March 2026 in Lamarm, Laos, and satellites saw it burning for 16 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,850 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 3th largest in Xekong since 2016 (of 22 with a page). Number 70 in Laos in 2026, of 287.

Burnt area
5,850ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
16days
26 Mar 2026 – 10 Apr 2026
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
26 Mar
2026
Heat detections
149
in a single hotspot: 219 MW
Danger at start
17
Moderate · FWI index
Energy released
3.6GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

9 Apr 2026
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 26 Mar10 Apr

How it evolved, day by day

262728293031123456789

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
40km/h · peak gust
25%lowest humidity

It had gone 5 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 4.4 mm on 16 Apr.

This area had burned before

47% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 581 ha in 2016, 792 ha in 2018, 7 ha in 2021, 303 ha in 2023, 1,480 ha in 2024. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,743 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Lamarm where it started
    5,444 ha reached on 26 Mar
    3.2 %
  2. 442 ha reached on 28 Mar
    0.2 %

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)
26 Mar 34.2 °C 31 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 17
27 Mar 34.2 °C 31 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 17
28 Mar 32.2 °C 40 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 17
29 Mar 33.8 °C 26 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
30 Mar 34.4 °C 26 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
31 Mar 34.3 °C 25 % 31 km/h 0.1 mm High 23
1 Apr 34.7 °C 27 % 22 km/h 0.2 mm High 23
2 Apr 33.4 °C 34 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
3 Apr 34.3 °C 30 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
4 Apr 32.5 °C 36 % 37 km/h 0.1 mm High 25
5 Apr 32.7 °C 35 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
6 Apr 34.5 °C 31 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
7 Apr 34.2 °C 30 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
8 Apr 35.9 °C 27 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
9 Apr 34.4 °C 32 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
10 Apr 34.0 °C 35 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
11 Apr after 33.8 °C 34 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
12 Apr after 34.6 °C 33 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
13 Apr after 34.3 °C 34 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
14 Apr after 34.3 °C 38 % 25 km/h 0.1 mm High 26
15 Apr after 33.7 °C 38 % 26 km/h 0.3 mm High 26
16 Apr after 31.6 °C 45 % 27 km/h 4.4 mm Very low 5

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 19 Mar 2026
After · 17 Apr 2026

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 · Copernicus

On 11 April 2026 the air beside the fire reached 102 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 68: 4.5 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak102 µg/m³
Days over the guideline21 days
PM10102 µg/m³
Optical depth0.91
242526272829303112345678910111213
Good Fair Moderate Poor Very poor Extremely poor

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 · 149Every 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 Laos ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Lamarm fire last?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 26 March 2026 to 10 April 2026 (16 days). The perimeter dates it from 2 April 2026 to 10 April 2026.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 5,850 hectares (58.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Lamarm (5,444 ha, 3.2 %); Dakcheung (442 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 35.9 °C, humidity dropped to 25 % and gusts hit 40 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 29, 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
What do you think is wrong?

We will only use your email to reply about this report. Privacy.

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.