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Pek fire, 14 March 2023 Phookood, Kham, Pek

Out · last detection 15 Apr 2023, 06:57 UTC

The fire started on 14 March 2023 in Pek, Laos, and satellites saw it burning for 33 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 23,228 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.

It is the 3th largest in Xiangkhouang since 2016 (of 109 with a page). Number 7 in Laos in 2023, of 239.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Kham · 2020Phookood · 2022Kham · 2016Kham · 2022

Burnt area
23,228ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
33days
14 Mar 2023 – 15 Apr 2023
Municipalities hit
3
districts
Started on
14 Mar
2023
Heat detections
1,401
in a single hotspot: 323 MW
Danger at start
8
Low · FWI index
Average daily power
877MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 14 Mar15 Apr
15 Apr 2023

How it evolved, day by day

14 Mar 2023 · 28 MW · 5 15 Mar 2023 · 954 MW · 56 16 Mar 2023 · 321 MW · 8 17 Mar 2023 · 369 MW · 7 18 Mar 2023 · 123 MW · 16 19 Mar 2023 · 231 MW · 18 20 Mar 2023 · 86 MW · 15 21 Mar 2023 · 316 MW · 17 22 Mar 2023 · 724 MW · 23 23 Mar 2023 · 1,096 MW · 44 24 Mar 2023 · 3,321 MW · 121 25 Mar 2023 · 3,602 MW · 114 26 Mar 2023 · 3,641 MW · 174 27 Mar 2023 · 578 MW · 5 28 Mar 2023 · 926 MW · 47 29 Mar 2023 · 1,030 MW · 33 30 Mar 2023 · 29 MW · 2 31 Mar 2023 · 692 MW · 34 1 Apr 2023 · 1,704 MW · 49 2 Apr 2023 · 334 MW · 25 3 Apr 2023 · 1,877 MW · 137 4 Apr 2023 · 4,190 MW · 120 5 Apr 2023 · 743 MW · 59 6 Apr 2023 · 700 MW · 102 7 Apr 2023 · 4 MW · 4 8 Apr 2023 · 20 MW · 3 9 Apr 2023 · 138 MW · 18 10 Apr 2023 · 236 MW · 27 11 Apr 2023 · 379 MW · 57 12 Apr 2023 · 137 MW · 24 13 Apr 2023 · 91 MW · 14 14 Apr 2023 · 301 MW · 21 15 Apr 2023 · 8 MW · 2
14 Mar 19 Mar 24 Mar 29 Mar 3 Apr 4 Apr 8 Apr 13 Apr

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

The weather it burned in

32°high
49km/h · peak gust
27%lowest humidity

It had gone one day without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 3.2 mm on 16 Apr.

This area had burned before

57% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 4,814 ha in 2016, 1,395 ha in 2017, 1,202 ha in 2018, 3,117 ha in 2019, 3,578 ha in 2020, 1,809 ha in 2021, 5,648 ha in 2022. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 13,321 ha that had burned before.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 15% of the area of London (232 km² against 1,583 km²).

London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).

This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.

What happened to each town

  1. Phookood
    12,774 ha
    5.1 %
  2. Kham
    10,029 ha
    4.8 %
  3. Pek where it started
    567 ha
    0.4 %

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 2025
Built-up area4.1 ha
Residents≈ 2,200

Inside the perimeter there were about 4.1 hectares of built-up land and about 2,200 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)
21 Mar 29.8 °C 45 % 48 km/h 2.4 mm Low 8
22 Mar 30.7 °C 35 % 49 km/h 0.3 mm Moderate 20
23 Mar 31.3 °C 34 % 46 km/h 0.3 mm High 24
24 Mar 31.7 °C 31 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
25 Mar 32.3 °C 27 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
26 Mar 29.8 °C 35 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
27 Mar 29.9 °C 39 % 26 km/h 0.2 mm High 23
28 Mar 27.7 °C 54 % 36 km/h 2.0 mm Low 6
29 Mar 27.9 °C 53 % 37 km/h 1.6 mm Low 7
30 Mar 26.9 °C 59 % 32 km/h 1.6 mm Very low 5
31 Mar 27.9 °C 48 % 40 km/h 0.3 mm Moderate 12
1 Apr 29.3 °C 42 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
2 Apr 30.6 °C 36 % 44 km/h 0.3 mm High 23
3 Apr 30.8 °C 32 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
4 Apr 31.3 °C 32 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
5 Apr 31.3 °C 31 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
6 Apr 32.3 °C 30 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
7 Apr 31.3 °C 40 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
8 Apr 26.5 °C 65 % 30 km/h 6.0 mm Very low 2
9 Apr 28.6 °C 63 % 33 km/h 0.9 mm Very low 4
10 Apr 29.9 °C 48 % 35 km/h 0.1 mm Moderate 12
11 Apr 32.0 °C 40 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
12 Apr 31.6 °C 42 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
13 Apr 31.3 °C 45 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
14 Apr 32.4 °C 43 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
15 Apr 32.3 °C 40 % 25 km/h 0.7 mm Moderate 19
16 Apr after 30.1 °C 57 % 32 km/h 3.2 mm Very low 4

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 7 Mar 2023
After · 22 Apr 2023

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 · 1,401Every 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 Pek fire last?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 14 March 2023 to 15 April 2023 (33 days). The perimeter dates it from 21 March 2023 to 8 April 2023.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 23,228 hectares (232.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 3 municipalities: Phookood (12,774 ha, 5.1 %); Kham (10,029 ha, 4.8 %); Pek (567 ha, 0.4 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 32.3 °C, humidity dropped to 27 % and gusts hit 49 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 28, 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

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.

RSS Changes to this page

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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How we know this
  • Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery; 4 polygons grouped in this page.
  • Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 21 March 2023 to 8 April 2023. 1,401 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.

How we build fire pages: methodology ›

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.