Pek fire, March 2024 Pek, Khoune
The fire started on 27 March 2024 in Pek, Laos, and satellites saw it burning for 12 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 6,485 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 16th largest in Xiangkhouang since 2016 (of 107 with a page). Number 8 in Laos in 2024, of 109.
- Burnt area
- 6,485ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 12days
- 27 Mar 2024 – 7 Apr 2024
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- districts
- Started on
- 27 Mar
- 2024
- Heat detections
- 266
- in a single hotspot: 539 MW
- Danger at start
- 1
- Very low · FWI index
- Energy released
- 10.3GW
- 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 4 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 4.4 mm on 8 Apr.
This area had burned before
78% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 103 ha in 2016, 2,046 ha in 2017, 417 ha in 2018, 3,268 ha in 2020, 758 ha in 2022, 1,827 ha in 2023. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 5,083 ha that had burned before.
- 2,160 ha Pek fire, March 2020 8,891 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,600 ha Pek fire, March 2017 2,639 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,506 ha Pek fire, March 2023 2,164 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,109 ha Khoune fire, March 2020 3,373 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Pek where it started4,068 ha reached on 27 Mar3.2 %
-
2,451 ha reached on 28 Mar1.4 %
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.
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 27 Mar | 28.0 °C | 61 % | 34 km/h | 3.8 mm | Very low 1 |
| 28 Mar | 28.1 °C | 57 % | 32 km/h | 1.8 mm | Very low 2 |
| 29 Mar | 27.8 °C | 57 % | 41 km/h | 1.8 mm | Very low 2 |
| 30 Mar | 27.5 °C | 55 % | 52 km/h | 0.9 mm | Very low 5 |
| 31 Mar | 29.1 °C | 47 % | 45 km/h | 0.1 mm | Low 9 |
| 1 Apr | 31.5 °C | 34 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 15 |
| 2 Apr | 31.3 °C | 36 % | 49 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 17 |
| 3 Apr | 31.1 °C | 41 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 16 |
| 4 Apr | 31.1 °C | 45 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 16 |
| 5 Apr | 31.9 °C | 46 % | 35 km/h | 0.2 mm | Moderate 17 |
| 6 Apr | 31.3 °C | 52 % | 40 km/h | 0.2 mm | Moderate 15 |
| 7 Apr | 31.3 °C | 53 % | 38 km/h | 0.4 mm | Moderate 16 |
| 8 Apr after | 31.5 °C | 54 % | 28 km/h | 4.4 mm | Very low 2 |
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 3 April 2024 the air beside the fire reached 115 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 77: 5.2 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 · 266Every 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 Pek fire last?
- According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 27 March 2024 to 7 April 2024 (12 days). The perimeter dates it from 27 March 2024 to 5 April 2024.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 6,485 hectares (64.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Pek (4,068 ha, 3.2 %); Khoune (2,451 ha, 1.4 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 31.9 °C, humidity dropped to 34 % and gusts hit 52 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 17, class Moderate.
- 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.