Lashio fire, 22 March 2019 Lashio, Hsipaw
The fire started on 22 March 2019 in Lashio, Myanmar (Burma), and satellites saw it burning for 7 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 12,510 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 35th largest in Shan since 2016 (of 723 with a page). Number 6 in Myanmar (Burma) in 2019, of 141.
- Burnt area
- 12,510ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 7days
- 22 Mar 2019 – 28 Mar 2019
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- municipalities
- Started on
- 22 Mar
- 2019
- Heat detections
- 448
- in a single hotspot: 80 MW
- Danger at start
- 26
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 5.8GW
- 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 12 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.1 mm on 2 Apr.
This area had burned before
89% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 4,204 ha in 2016, 5,820 ha in 2017, 9,306 ha in 2018. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 11,106 ha that had burned before.
- 9,306 ha Lashio fire, March 2018 22,027 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 3,321 ha Lashio fire, March 2017 4,352 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,183 ha Lashio fire, March 2016 2,348 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Lashio where it started12,543 ha reached on 15 Mar3.2 %
-
3 ha reached on 17 Mar0.0 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 22 Mar | 31.7 °C | 25 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 23 Mar | 32.2 °C | 27 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 24 Mar | 33.4 °C | 23 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 25 Mar | 33.7 °C | 25 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 26 Mar | 34.0 °C | 27 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 27 Mar | 33.5 °C | 24 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 28 Mar | 28.8 °C | 33 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 29 Mar after | 32.7 °C | 25 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 30 Mar after | 33.5 °C | 27 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 31 Mar after | 34.0 °C | 26 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 1 Apr after | 32.0 °C | 29 % | 44 km/h | 0.4 mm | High 32 |
| 2 Apr after | 31.1 °C | 34 % | 38 km/h | 1.1 mm | Moderate 21 |
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 · 448Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Lashio fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 22 March 2019 and 28 March 2019: 7 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 12,510 hectares (125.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Lashio (12,543 ha, 3.2 %); Hsipaw (3 ha, 0.0 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 34.0 °C, humidity dropped to 23 % and gusts hit 41 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 32, class High.
- Where does this data come from?
- From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Myanmar (Burma) (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 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.