Mongpan fire, 23 March 2023 Langkho, Mongpan
The fire started on 23 March 2023 in Mongpan, Myanmar (Burma), and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,028 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 702th largest in Shan since 2016 (of 723 with a page). Number 203 in Myanmar (Burma) in 2023, of 212.
The power measured by the satellite is low (15.9 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.
- Burnt area
- 2,028ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 6days
- 23 Mar 2023 – 28 Mar 2023
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- municipalities
- Started on
- 23 Mar
- 2023
- Heat detections
- 74
- in a single hotspot: 16 MW
- Energy released
- 347MW
- 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.
This area had burned before
73% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 827 ha in 2017, 1,151 ha in 2019, 529 ha in 2020, 1,284 ha in 2021. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 1,473 ha that had burned before.
- 1,284 ha Mongpan fire, March 2021 4,887 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 602 ha Langkho fire, March 2019 2,244 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 529 ha Langkho fire, February 2020 4,540 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 151 ha Mongton fire, February 2017 2,030 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
1,081 ha reached on 25 Mar0.2 %
-
Mongpan where it started955 ha reached on 23 Mar0.4 %
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.
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 · 74Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 21,661 haMongton21 March 2026 · 17 days · 7 km away
- 21,035 haMongton16 February 2024 · 30 days · 9 km away
- 20,728 haMongpan8 March 2019 · 18 days · 13 km away
- 13,153 haLangkho20 March 2026 · 15 days · 20 km away
- 11,077 haPai28 February 2020 · 26 days · 23 km away
- 11,795 haPang Mapha24 March 2026 · 11 days · 24 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Mongpan fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 23 March 2023 and 28 March 2023: 6 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 2,028 hectares (20.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Langkho (1,081 ha, 0.2 %); Mongpan (955 ha, 0.4 %).
- 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.