Phiang fire, March 2024 Phiang
The fire started on 27 March 2024 in Phiang, Laos, and satellites saw it burning for 14 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,004 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 122th largest in Xaignabouli since 2016 (of 122 with a page). Number 109 in Laos in 2024, of 109.
- Burnt area
- 2,004ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 14days
- 27 Mar 2024 – 9 Apr 2024
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- districts
- Started on
- 27 Mar
- 2024
- Heat detections
- 59
- in a single hotspot: 186 MW
- Energy released
- 1.8GW
- 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
91% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 221 ha in 2016, 941 ha in 2017, 199 ha in 2018, 1,275 ha in 2019, 1,334 ha in 2020, 382 ha in 2022, 869 ha in 2023. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 1,833 ha that had burned before.
- 1,275 ha Phiang fire, March 2019 20,323 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 941 ha Phiang fire, April 2017 8,243 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 925 ha Phiang fire, March 2020 6,343 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 213 ha Phiang fire, March 2016 5,336 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 199 ha Phiang fire, March 2018 3,658 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 8 ha Phiang fire, March 2016 5,813 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Phiang where it started2,016 ha reached on 27 Mar0.7 %
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.
The smoke
CAMS · CopernicusOn 7 April 2024 the air beside the fire reached 128 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 67: 4.5 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 · 59Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 20,323 haPhiang9 March 2019 · 34 days · 3 km away
- 15,266 haBo Kluea23 March 2020 · 12 days · 19 km away
- 12,396 haPhiang28 March 2026 · 26 days · 21 km away
- 12,392 haBo Kluea7 April 2026 · 11 days · 29 km away
- 18,466 haPhiang3 April 2016 · 22 days · 32 km away
- 44,232 haParklai14 March 2026 · 43 days · 36 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Phiang fire last?
- According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 27 March 2024 to 9 April 2024 (14 days). The perimeter dates it from 31 March 2024 to 5 April 2024.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 2,004 hectares (20.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Phiang (2,016 ha, 0.7 %).
- 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.