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Mad fire, March 2026 Mad, Kasy, Feuang

Out · last detection 22 Apr 2026, 18:12 UTC

The fire started on 20 March 2026 in Mad, Laos, and satellites saw it burning for 34 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 10,550 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.

It is the 5th largest in Vientiane since 2016 (of 74 with a page). Number 34 in Laos in 2026, of 287.

Burnt area
10,550ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
34days
20 Mar 2026 – 22 Apr 2026
Municipalities hit
3
districts
Started on
20 Mar
2026
Heat detections
563
in a single hotspot: 169 MW
Danger at start
15
Moderate · FWI index
Energy released
5.3GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

22 Apr 2026
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 20 Mar22 Apr

How it evolved, day by day

20222324252628293031123456789101112131415161718192022

Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.

The weather it burned in

41°high
38km/h · peak gust
17%lowest humidity

It had gone 6 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 6.4 mm on 23 Apr.

This area had burned before

35% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 38 ha in 2018, 1,240 ha in 2023, 2,465 ha in 2024.

What happened to each town

  1. Mad where it started
    7,975 ha reached on 20 Mar
    5.1 %
  2. Kasy
    2,557 ha reached on 20 Mar
    1.0 %
  3. Feuang
    77 ha reached on 25 Mar
    0.1 %

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)
20 Mar 34.8 °C 40 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 15
21 Mar 34.9 °C 42 % 28 km/h 4.2 mm Very low 4
22 Mar 33.3 °C 51 % 32 km/h 1.7 mm Very low 4
23 Mar 35.5 °C 37 % 24 km/h 0.5 mm Moderate 13
24 Mar 37.2 °C 29 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
25 Mar 35.4 °C 46 % 27 km/h 0.5 mm Moderate 16
26 Mar 38.2 °C 32 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
27 Mar 38.0 °C 31 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
28 Mar 37.2 °C 36 % 29 km/h 0.2 mm High 23
29 Mar 35.7 °C 41 % 38 km/h 2.0 mm Low 11
30 Mar 37.9 °C 27 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
31 Mar 37.6 °C 30 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
1 Apr 37.7 °C 33 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
2 Apr 37.4 °C 36 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
3 Apr 38.1 °C 33 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
4 Apr 36.7 °C 37 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
5 Apr 38.0 °C 34 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
6 Apr 38.5 °C 31 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
7 Apr 39.1 °C 29 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
8 Apr 39.8 °C 21 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
9 Apr 39.7 °C 22 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
10 Apr 39.6 °C 20 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
11 Apr 38.6 °C 27 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
12 Apr 39.3 °C 24 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
13 Apr 39.6 °C 27 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
14 Apr 40.1 °C 24 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
15 Apr 40.1 °C 23 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
16 Apr 40.6 °C 17 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
17 Apr 39.5 °C 25 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
18 Apr 36.7 °C 40 % 27 km/h 1.0 mm High 24
19 Apr 33.9 °C 59 % 32 km/h 12.8 mm Very low 3
20 Apr 34.1 °C 54 % 27 km/h 1.2 mm Low 6
21 Apr 36.4 °C 47 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
22 Apr 37.4 °C 46 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
23 Apr after 34.2 °C 58 % 28 km/h 6.4 mm Very low 3

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 13 Mar 2026
After · 29 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 12 April 2026 the air beside the fire reached 393 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 270: 18 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak393 µg/m³
Days over the guideline39 days
PM10416 µg/m³
Optical depth3.55
181920212223242526272829303112345678910111213141516171819202122232425
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 · 563Every 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 Mad fire last?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 20 March 2026 to 22 April 2026 (34 days). The perimeter dates it from 26 March 2026 to 19 April 2026.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 10,550 hectares (105.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 3 municipalities: Mad (7,975 ha, 5.1 %); Kasy (2,557 ha, 1.0 %); Feuang (77 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 40.6 °C, humidity dropped to 17 % and gusts hit 38 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 40, class Very 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.

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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.