Nan fire, March 2017 Nan
The fire started on 16 March 2017 in Nan, Laos, and satellites saw it burning for 20 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,654 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 163th largest in Luang Prabang since 2016 (of 293 with a page). Number 61 in Laos in 2017, of 114.
- Burnt area
- 2,654ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 20days
- 16 Mar 2017 – 4 Apr 2017
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- districts
- Started on
- 16 Mar
- 2017
- Heat detections
- 125
- in a single hotspot: 125 MW
- Energy released
- 1.5GW
- 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
36% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 947 ha in 2016.
What happened to each town
-
Nan where it started2,672 ha reached on 16 Mar1.8 %
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 · 125Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 6,201 haChomphet21 March 2023 · 21 days · 12 km away
- 8,362 haChomphet21 March 2020 · 23 days · 22 km away
- 5,824 haHongsa29 March 2026 · 20 days · 24 km away
- 9,759 haNan25 March 2026 · 29 days · 29 km away
- 8,764 haHongsa7 April 2017 · 6 days · 38 km away
- 5,997 haXieng NgeunMarch 2026 · 25 days · 38 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Nan fire last?
- According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 16 March 2017 to 4 April 2017 (20 days). The perimeter dates it from 22 March 2017 to 28 March 2017.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 2,654 hectares (26.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Nan (2,672 ha, 1.8 %).
- 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.