Longsane fire, 26 March 2026 Home, Longsane
The fire started on 26 March 2026 in Longsane, Laos, and satellites saw it burning for 28 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 14,089 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the largest fire in Xaisomboun since 2016 (of 28 with a page). Number 21 in Laos in 2026, of 287.
- Burnt area
- 14,089ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 28days
- 26 Mar 2026 – 22 Apr 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- districts
- Started on
- 26 Mar
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 714
- in a single hotspot: 242 MW
- Danger at start
- 8
- Low · FWI index
- Energy released
- 5.7GW
- 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 0 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 2.1 mm on 18 Apr.
This area had burned before
73% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 3,403 ha in 2019, 9,295 ha in 2023. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 10,239 ha that had burned before.
- 3,706 ha Longsane fire, March 2023 4,484 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,221 ha Home fire, March 2023 2,521 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,294 ha Home fire, March 2023 2,214 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 809 ha Longsane fire, April 2023 2,183 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
8,152 ha reached on 29 Mar6.3 %
-
Longsane where it started6,007 ha reached on 26 Mar4.3 %
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 | 32.9 °C | 48 % | 27 km/h | 0.6 mm | Low 8 |
| 27 Mar | 33.4 °C | 42 % | 32 km/h | 0.1 mm | Moderate 12 |
| 28 Mar | 33.8 °C | 45 % | 31 km/h | 0.6 mm | Moderate 12 |
| 29 Mar | 32.7 °C | 44 % | 38 km/h | 2.1 mm | Low 6 |
| 30 Mar | 31.4 °C | 50 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 10 |
| 31 Mar | 33.2 °C | 40 % | 35 km/h | 0.2 mm | Moderate 14 |
| 1 Apr | 32.4 °C | 44 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 14 |
| 2 Apr | 33.4 °C | 44 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 15 |
| 3 Apr | 33.6 °C | 43 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 16 |
| 4 Apr | 32.9 °C | 46 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 17 |
| 5 Apr | 33.0 °C | 44 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 17 |
| 6 Apr | 34.3 °C | 40 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 18 |
| 7 Apr | 34.5 °C | 37 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 8 Apr | 35.1 °C | 33 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 9 Apr | 35.5 °C | 29 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 10 Apr | 35.4 °C | 26 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 11 Apr | 35.4 °C | 29 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 12 Apr | 34.7 °C | 33 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 13 Apr | 35.0 °C | 36 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 14 Apr | 35.2 °C | 35 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 15 Apr | 35.3 °C | 32 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 16 Apr | 35.3 °C | 32 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 17 Apr | 33.7 °C | 40 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 18 Apr | 29.9 °C | 60 % | 30 km/h | 2.1 mm | Low 6 |
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 17 April 2026 the air beside the fire reached 356 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 218: 15 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 · 714Every 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 Longsane fire last?
- According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 26 March 2026 to 22 April 2026 (28 days). The perimeter dates it from 26 March 2026 to 17 April 2026.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 14,089 hectares (140.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Home (8,152 ha, 6.3 %); Longsane (6,007 ha, 4.3 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 35.5 °C, humidity dropped to 26 % and gusts hit 43 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 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
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.