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Phine fire, March 2019 Phine, Sepone

Out · last detection 20 Mar 2019, 06:35 UTC

The fire started on 5 March 2019 in Phine, Laos, and satellites saw it burning for 16 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,780 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 44th largest in Savannakhet since 2016 (of 96 with a page). Number 61 in Laos in 2019, of 117.

Burnt area
2,780ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
16days
5 Mar 2019 – 20 Mar 2019
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
5 Mar
2019
Heat detections
96
in a single hotspot: 128 MW
Danger at start
22
High · FWI index
Energy released
1.5GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

20 Mar 2019
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 5 Mar20 Mar

How it evolved, day by day

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

The weather it burned in

36°high
46km/h · peak gust
31%lowest humidity

It had gone 14 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 2.6 mm on 23 Mar.

This area had burned before

59% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 962 ha in 2016, 1,373 ha in 2018. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 1,641 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Phine where it started
    1,412 ha reached on 5 Mar
    0.4 %
  2. Sepone
    1,384 ha reached on 5 Mar
    0.7 %

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.

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)
5 Mar 33.6 °C 50 % 46 km/h 0.6 mm High 22
6 Mar 35.8 °C 39 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
7 Mar 36.1 °C 32 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
8 Mar 35.2 °C 34 % 35 km/h 0.1 mm High 30
9 Mar 35.6 °C 34 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
10 Mar 35.8 °C 32 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
11 Mar 35.1 °C 36 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
12 Mar 35.2 °C 34 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
13 Mar 35.6 °C 31 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
14 Mar 35.4 °C 37 % 30 km/h 0.4 mm High 33
15 Mar 32.7 °C 52 % 42 km/h 0.3 mm High 28
16 Mar 33.3 °C 49 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
17 Mar 34.6 °C 41 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
18 Mar 36.0 °C 37 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
19 Mar 36.4 °C 33 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
20 Mar 35.9 °C 35 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
21 Mar after 37.5 °C 33 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
22 Mar after 36.3 °C 38 % 31 km/h 0.2 mm High 32
23 Mar after 37.8 °C 38 % 37 km/h 2.6 mm Moderate 19

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 26 Feb 2019
After · 27 Mar 2019

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 · 96Every 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 Phine fire last?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 5 March 2019 to 20 March 2019 (16 days). The perimeter dates it from 5 March 2019 to 13 March 2019.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 2,780 hectares (27.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Phine (1,412 ha, 0.4 %); Sepone (1,384 ha, 0.7 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.4 °C, humidity dropped to 31 % and gusts hit 46 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 34, 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

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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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.