Lashio fire, March 2026 Lashio, Hsipaw
The fire started on 6 March 2026 in Lashio, Myanmar (Burma), and satellites saw it burning for 5 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,606 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 228th largest in Shan since 2016 (of 723 with a page). Number 163 in Myanmar (Burma) in 2026, of 418.
- Burnt area
- 3,606ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 5days
- 6 Mar 2026 – 10 Mar 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- municipalities
- Started on
- 6 Mar
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 70
- in a single hotspot: 60 MW
- Danger at start
- 22
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 1.2GW
- 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 more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 2.3 mm on 13 Mar.
This area had burned before
98% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 827 ha in 2016, 2,567 ha in 2017, 1,479 ha in 2018, 2,514 ha in 2019, 925 ha in 2020, 1,818 ha in 2021, 1,383 ha in 2022, 1,664 ha in 2023, 2,782 ha in 2024, 1,613 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 3,518 ha that had burned before.
- 2,782 ha Lashio fire, March 2024 6,156 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,514 ha Lashio fire, March 2019 12,510 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,359 ha Lashio fire, March 2017 4,352 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,479 ha Lashio fire, March 2018 22,027 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,364 ha Lashio fire, March 2022 11,673 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 932 ha Hsipaw fire, February 2023 2,157 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 827 ha Lashio fire, March 2016 2,348 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 729 ha Lashio fire, February 2023 2,925 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Lashio where it started3,449 ha reached on 7 Mar0.9 %
-
168 ha reached on 7 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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6 Mar | 31.3 °C | 38 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 7 Mar | 31.1 °C | 42 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 8 Mar | 32.9 °C | 29 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 9 Mar | 34.0 °C | 26 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 10 Mar | 33.5 °C | 24 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 11 Mar after | 29.4 °C | 40 % | 27 km/h | 0.5 mm | High 25 |
| 12 Mar after | 27.9 °C | 41 % | 18 km/h | 0.8 mm | Moderate 18 |
| 13 Mar after | 27.4 °C | 46 % | 31 km/h | 2.3 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.
The smoke
CAMS · CopernicusOn 8 March 2026 the air beside the fire reached 90 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 66: 4.4 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 · 70Every 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 6 March 2026 and 10 March 2026: 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 3,606 hectares (36.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Lashio (3,449 ha, 0.9 %); Hsipaw (168 ha, 0.0 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 34.0 °C, humidity dropped to 24 % and gusts hit 25 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 30, 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.