How long did the Phine fire last?

According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 2 March 2021 to 30 March 2021 (29 days). The perimeter dates it from 4 March 2021 to 23 March 2021.

How much area did it burn?

The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 7,656 hectares (76.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire entered 2 municipalities: Phine (4,384 ha, 1.3 %); Sepone (3,317 ha, 1.6 %).

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 36.2 °C, humidity dropped to 25 % and gusts hit 70 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 29, 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.

LA · Laos · 2021-03-02 → 2021-03-30

Phine fire, March 2021 Phine, Sepone

Out · last detection 30 Mar 2021, 06:41 UTC

The fire started on 2 March 2021 in Phine, Laos, and satellites saw it burning for 29 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 7,656 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 10th largest in Savannakhet since 2016 (of 96 with a page). Number 2 in Laos in 2021, of 86.

Burnt area: 7,656ha; GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration: 29days; 2 Mar 2021 – 30 Mar 2021
Municipalities hit: 2; districts
Started on: 2 Mar; 2021
Heat detections: 275; in a single hotspot: 221 MW
Danger at start: 16; Moderate · FWI index
Energy released: 4.2GW; sum of detected power

Play back 30 Mar 2021

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 2 Mar30 Mar

How it evolved, day by day

24567910111214161718192022232526282930

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

70km/h · peak gust

25%lowest humidity

It had gone 19 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.4 mm on 1 Apr.

This area had burned before

60% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 3,084 ha in 2016, 1,993 ha in 2018, 2,356 ha in 2019, 391 ha in 2020. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 4,600 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

Phine where it started

4,384 ha reached on 2 Mar

1.3 %
Sepone

3,317 ha reached on 4 Mar

1.6 %

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)
2 Mar	28.4 °C	59 %	46 km/h	0.6 mm	Moderate 16
3 Mar	27.8 °C	56 %	42 km/h	0.3 mm	Moderate 15
4 Mar	31.6 °C	48 %	28 km/h	0.8 mm	Moderate 13
5 Mar	33.4 °C	37 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 17
6 Mar	31.5 °C	49 %	29 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 17
7 Mar	32.1 °C	44 %	40 km/h	0.7 mm	Moderate 19
8 Mar	30.6 °C	52 %	29 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 17
9 Mar	33.5 °C	37 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	High 22
10 Mar	32.2 °C	38 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	High 22
11 Mar	32.6 °C	35 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	High 25
12 Mar	31.2 °C	39 %	44 km/h	0.0 mm	High 26
13 Mar	31.5 °C	36 %	39 km/h	0.0 mm	High 25
14 Mar	31.2 °C	38 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	High 25
15 Mar	33.8 °C	32 %	25 km/h	0.0 mm	High 24
16 Mar	34.2 °C	32 %	24 km/h	0.0 mm	High 25
17 Mar	33.5 °C	40 %	19 km/h	0.0 mm	High 24
18 Mar	36.2 °C	25 %	19 km/h	0.0 mm	High 29
19 Mar	34.9 °C	40 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	High 26
20 Mar	34.6 °C	40 %	25 km/h	0.0 mm	High 25
21 Mar	33.4 °C	45 %	49 km/h	5.8 mm	Low 9
22 Mar	22.8 °C	58 %	70 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 16
23 Mar	25.2 °C	52 %	59 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 18
24 Mar	28.8 °C	44 %	49 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 21
25 Mar	32.7 °C	38 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	High 23
26 Mar	34.5 °C	37 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	High 22
27 Mar	34.8 °C	35 %	25 km/h	0.0 mm	High 22
28 Mar	34.5 °C	36 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	High 24
29 Mar	35.1 °C	36 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	High 26
30 Mar	34.4 °C	38 %	42 km/h	0.0 mm	High 29
31 Mar after	35.2 °C	40 %	44 km/h	0.3 mm	High 28
1 Apr after	34.8 °C	41 %	39 km/h	1.4 mm	Moderate 19

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 23 Feb 2021

After · 6 Apr 2021

Before After

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 · 275Every 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 time	Satellite	FRP (MW)	Lat	Lon

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 2 March 2021 to 30 March 2021 (29 days). The perimeter dates it from 4 March 2021 to 23 March 2021.
How much area did it burn?: The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 7,656 hectares (76.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire entered 2 municipalities: Phine (4,384 ha, 1.3 %); Sepone (3,317 ha, 1.6 %).
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 36.2 °C, humidity dropped to 25 % and gusts hit 70 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 29, 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

NASA FIRMS ↗
GWIS · Copernicus ↗

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.

Where it burned