Lawksawk fire, 26 February 2024 Lawksawk, Hopong, Taunggyi
The fire started on 26 February 2024 in Lawksawk, Myanmar, and satellites saw it burning for 21 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 36,894 hectares from heat detections, spread across 4 municipalities.
It is the 6th largest in Shan since 2016 (of 806 with a page). Number 2 in Myanmar in 2024, of 174.
Compare with…
- Burnt area
- 36,894ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 21days
- 26 Feb 2024 – 17 Mar 2024
- Municipalities hit
- 4
- municipalities
- Started on
- 26 Feb
- 2024
- Heat detections
- 3,243
- in a single hotspot: 98 MW
- Danger at start
- 23
- High · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 1.0GW
- detected power per day, on average
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 33 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
67% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 7,656 ha in 2016, 9,761 ha in 2017, 664 ha in 2018, 5,513 ha in 2019, 7,073 ha in 2020, 8,812 ha in 2021, 6,532 ha in 2022, 11,584 ha in 2023. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 24,880 ha that had burned before.
- 3,665 ha Taunggyi fire, January 2023 13,906 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 3,058 ha Hopong fire, February 2020 4,849 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,850 ha Lawksawk fire, February 2023 3,585 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,593 ha Lawksawk fire, March 2017 3,542 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,541 ha Lawksawk fire, February 2022 4,952 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,294 ha Lawksawk fire, March 2016 2,874 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,265 ha Lawksawk fire, February 2021 2,636 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,004 ha Lawksawk fire, March 2022 4,261 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
How big is it?
London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).
Paris boundary: geoBoundaries · Institut national de l'information géographique et forestière (IGN-F) (Etalab Open License 2.0).
Madrid boundary: geoBoundaries · Open Data ESRI, IGN Central Registry of Cartography Area (CC BY 4.0).
Berlin boundary: geoBoundaries · Federal Agency for Cartography and Geodesy (dl-de/by-2-0).
This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.
What happened to each town
-
Lawksawk where it started20,092 ha3.9 %
-
15,925 ha5.4 %
-
675 ha0.3 %
-
361 ha0.1 %
Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the GWIS perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance runs from the point marking the centre of each area to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.
People and buildings inside the perimeter
GHSL 2025Inside the perimeter there were about 4.2 hectares of built-up land and about 2,800 residents (GHSL 2025, satellite-based estimate).
This is an estimate on 100 m cells, made from satellite imagery and census data: it does not mean that homes burned or that anyone was harmed. The perimeter also contains land that never burned. The GHSL 2025 epoch is a projection made from 2020 and earlier data.
Source: Global Human Settlement Layer (GHS-BUILT-S and GHS-POP R2023A), European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC), © European Union, CC BY 4.0. Sum inside the perimeter computed by WorldFires. human-settlement.emergency.copernicus.eu
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 19 Feb | 29.7 °C | 32 % | 19 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 23 |
| 20 Feb | 29.5 °C | 35 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 21 Feb | 29.7 °C | 38 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 23 |
| 22 Feb | 31.0 °C | 38 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 23 Feb | 31.2 °C | 41 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 23 |
| 24 Feb | 30.3 °C | 37 % | 21 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 25 Feb | 31.5 °C | 34 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 26 Feb | 31.7 °C | 39 % | 21 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 23 |
| 27 Feb | 32.3 °C | 35 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 28 Feb | 32.0 °C | 32 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 29 Feb | 31.9 °C | 35 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 1 Mar | 31.4 °C | 36 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 2 Mar | 32.2 °C | 31 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 3 Mar | 32.1 °C | 33 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 4 Mar | 32.6 °C | 34 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 5 Mar | 31.8 °C | 31 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 6 Mar | 32.1 °C | 38 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 7 Mar | 32.3 °C | 33 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 8 Mar | 32.8 °C | 31 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 9 Mar | 32.3 °C | 35 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 10 Mar | 32.9 °C | 34 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 11 Mar | 33.0 °C | 35 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 12 Mar | 32.5 °C | 32 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 13 Mar | 32.1 °C | 35 % | 19 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 14 Mar | 31.2 °C | 30 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 15 Mar | 32.3 °C | 38 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 16 Mar | 32.4 °C | 44 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 17 Mar | 32.8 °C | 36 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 18 Mar after | 33.2 °C | 38 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 19 Mar after | 33.9 °C | 34 % | 23 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 26 |
| 20 Mar after | 34.1 °C | 32 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 21 Mar after | 32.4 °C | 38 % | 28 km/h | 7.4 mm | Very low 5 |
| 22 Mar after | 28.7 °C | 35 % | 34 km/h | 2.3 mm | Low 8 |
| 23 Mar after | 30.7 °C | 36 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 17 |
| 24 Mar after | 31.6 °C | 33 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 23 |
| 25 Mar after | 32.7 °C | 33 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 26 Mar after | 32.9 °C | 34 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 27 Mar after | 33.2 °C | 30 % | 26 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 26 |
| 28 Mar after | 32.8 °C | 34 % | 23 km/h | 0.4 mm | High 25 |
| 29 Mar after | 32.3 °C | 37 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 30 Mar after | 33.8 °C | 37 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 31 Mar after | 34.6 °C | 30 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 1 Apr after | 35.2 °C | 32 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 2 Apr after | 34.5 °C | 31 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 3 Apr after | 35.5 °C | 33 % | 31 km/h | 0.3 mm | High 31 |
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 6 March 2024 the air beside the fire reached 81 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 50: 3.3 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 · 3,243Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 24,421 haLawksawk27 February 2026 · 14 days · 4 km away
- 12,822 haHopong6 March 2025 · 10 days · 15 km away
- 13,906 haTaunggyiJanuary 2023 · 27 days · 23 km away
- 11,481 haTaunggyiFebruary 2020 · 11 days · 29 km away
- 8,195 haTaunggyi26 February 2026 · 9 days · 30 km away
- 7,126 haTaunggyi17 January 2021 · 12 days · 34 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Lawksawk fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 26 February 2024 and 17 March 2024: 21 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 36,894 hectares (368.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 4 municipalities: Lawksawk (20,092 ha, 3.9 %); Hopong (15,925 ha, 5.4 %); Taunggyi (675 ha, 0.3 %); Mongkaing (361 ha, 0.1 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 34.1 °C, humidity dropped to 30 % and gusts hit 39 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 35, class High.
- Where does this data come from?
- From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Myanmar (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
History of this page Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
No changes since 24 October 2026.
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
How we know this
- Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery; 3 polygons grouped in this page.
- Dates from the perimeter: the VIIRS detections inside it did not change them. 3,243 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
- We have not matched this page with any official record.
- Weather: Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, in cells of about 25 km.
- Built-up area and population come from the JRC Global Human Settlement Layer (epoch 2025, 100 m cells), summed inside the perimeter: an estimate of what was there, not a damage count.
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.