Phiang fire, 27 March 2026 Phiang, Thongmyxay, Parklai
The fire started on 27 March 2026 in Phiang, Laos, and satellites saw it burning for 27 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 113,987 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.
This page is probably a fire complex, not a single fire. GWIS merges into one perimeter the fires that touch over weeks, which in large burning seasons can join dozens of separate fires. The total area is reliable; the origin and dates refer to the whole complex.
Other fire pages in the same area and on the same dates:
- 66,772 haNa Noi นาน้อย12 March 2026 · 42 days
- 45,327 haXanakharmMarch 2026 · 37 days
- 44,232 haParklai14 March 2026 · 43 days
- 43,391 haNa Noi นาน้อย26 March 2026 · 28 days
- 15,085 haWiang Sa เวียงสา17 March 2026 · 24 days
- 12,097 haXayabury27 March 2026 · 22 days
- 11,286 haPhiang20 March 2026 · 33 days
- 11,280 haPhiang7 April 2026 · 11 days
It is the largest fire in Xaignabouli since 2016 (of 161 with a page). The largest in Laos in 2026, of 308.
Compare with…
Suggestions: Phiang · 2023Phiang · 2020Phiang · 2023Phiang · 2025
- Burnt area
- 113,987ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 27days
- 27 Mar 2026 – 22 Apr 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 3
- districts
- Started on
- 27 Mar
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 4,337
- in a single hotspot: 0 MW
- Danger at start
- 22
- High · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 692MW
- detected power per day, on average
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: 1.5 mm on 23 Apr.
This area had burned before
79% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 19,771 ha in 2016, 2,686 ha in 2017, 1,819 ha in 2018, 36,209 ha in 2019, 40,255 ha in 2020, 1,356 ha in 2021, 1,115 ha in 2022, 71,820 ha in 2023, 12,339 ha in 2024, 10,188 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 90,467 ha that had burned before.
- 31,258 ha Phiang fire, March 2023 35,527 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 8,702 ha Phiang fire, March 2020 13,215 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 8,053 ha Phiang fire, March 2023 11,345 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 5,888 ha Phiang fire, March 2025 8,044 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 3,004 ha Phiang fire, April 2019 3,106 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,800 ha Phiang fire, April 2016 18,466 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,144 ha Phiang fire, April 2019 2,277 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,090 ha Thongmyxay fire, March 2020 2,230 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
How big is it?
London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).
Paris boundary: geoBoundaries · Institut national de l'information géographique et forestière (IGN-F) (Etalab Open License 2.0).
Madrid boundary: geoBoundaries · Open Data ESRI, IGN Central Registry of Cartography Area (CC BY 4.0).
Berlin boundary: geoBoundaries · Federal Agency for Cartography and Geodesy (dl-de/by-2-0).
This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.
What happened to each town
-
Phiang where it started71,037 ha25 %
-
38,921 ha44 %
-
1,347 ha0.6 %
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 2025Inside the perimeter there were about 0.50 hectares of built-up land and about 1,000 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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 27 Mar | 36.1 °C | 29 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 28 Mar | 35.1 °C | 37 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 29 Mar | 34.2 °C | 37 % | 45 km/h | 2.8 mm | Low 10 |
| 30 Mar | 35.5 °C | 31 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 31 Mar | 34.9 °C | 35 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 1 Apr | 35.8 °C | 35 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 2 Apr | 36.1 °C | 35 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 21 |
| 3 Apr | 36.0 °C | 34 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 4 Apr | 34.6 °C | 40 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 23 |
| 5 Apr | 35.9 °C | 37 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 6 Apr | 36.6 °C | 34 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 23 |
| 7 Apr | 36.6 °C | 35 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 8 Apr | 36.8 °C | 29 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 9 Apr | 37.0 °C | 26 % | 48 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 10 Apr | 37.1 °C | 25 % | 48 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 11 Apr | 36.5 °C | 30 % | 49 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 12 Apr | 37.1 °C | 25 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 13 Apr | 37.5 °C | 27 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 14 Apr | 38.1 °C | 27 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 15 Apr | 38.3 °C | 23 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 16 Apr | 38.6 °C | 18 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 17 Apr | 37.4 °C | 27 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 18 Apr | 35.4 °C | 36 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 19 Apr | 32.8 °C | 47 % | 33 km/h | 5.2 mm | Very low 5 |
| 20 Apr | 35.2 °C | 40 % | 33 km/h | 0.4 mm | Moderate 17 |
| 21 Apr | 36.6 °C | 35 % | 32 km/h | 0.2 mm | High 24 |
| 22 Apr | 36.7 °C | 42 % | 35 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 25 |
| 23 Apr after | 34.0 °C | 49 % | 33 km/h | 1.5 mm | Moderate 13 |
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 · 0Every 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 Phiang fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 27 March 2026 and 22 April 2026: 27 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 113,987 hectares (1,139.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 3 municipalities: Phiang (71,037 ha, 25 %); Thongmyxay (38,921 ha, 44 %); Parklai (1,347 ha, 0.6 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 38.6 °C, humidity dropped to 18 % and gusts hit 49 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 39, class Very 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.
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
How we know this
- Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery; 2 polygons grouped in this page.
- Dates from the perimeter: the VIIRS detections inside it did not change them. No 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.
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.