Phouvong fire, March 2021 Phouvong, Xaysetha
The fire started on 20 March 2021 in Phouvong, Laos, and satellites saw it burning for 19 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,013 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 36th largest in Attapeu since 2016 (of 36 with a page). Number 83 in Laos in 2021, of 86.
- Burnt area
- 2,013ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 19days
- 20 Mar 2021 – 7 Apr 2021
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- districts
- Started on
- 20 Mar
- 2021
- Heat detections
- 77
- in a single hotspot: 70 MW
- Energy released
- 1.1GW
- 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
66% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1 ha in 2016, 200 ha in 2018, 452 ha in 2019, 1,175 ha in 2020. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 1,319 ha that had burned before.
What happened to each town
-
Phouvong where it started1,716 ha reached on 20 Mar0.5 %
-
311 ha reached on 26 Mar0.2 %
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.
Detections table · 77Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 3,336 haXaysethaMarch 2026 · 26 days · 11 km away
- 2,565 haXaysethaFebruary 2022 · 27 days · 17 km away
- 3,847 haSanxay3 March 2023 · 13 days · 21 km away
- 3,001 haSanxay12 March 2025 · 15 days · 38 km away
- 4,959 haTa VeaengApril 2016 · 12 days · 39 km away
- 2,690 haSanxay20 March 2026 · 15 days · 40 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Phouvong fire last?
- According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 20 March 2021 to 7 April 2021 (19 days). The perimeter dates it from 26 March 2021 to 1 April 2021.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 2,013 hectares (20.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Phouvong (1,716 ha, 0.5 %); Xaysetha (311 ha, 0.2 %).
- 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.