Skip to content
worldfires
en
KH · Cambodia · →

Prek Prasab fire, 22 January 2016 Santuk, Prek Prasab

Out · last detection 5 Mar 2016, 19:21 UTC

The fire started on 22 January 2016 in Prek Prasab, Cambodia, and satellites saw it burning for 43 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 21,964 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 3th largest in Kratie since 2016 (of 80 with a page). Number 4 in Cambodia in 2016, of 118.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Sambour · 2020Prek Prasab · 2016Sambour · 2021Sambour · 2017

Burnt area
21,964ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
43days
22 Jan 2016 – 4 Mar 2016
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
22 Jan
2016
Heat detections
3,141
in a single hotspot: 261 MW
Danger at start
18
Moderate · FWI index
Average daily power
559MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 22 Jan4 Mar
5 Mar 2016

How it evolved, day by day

22 Jan 2016 · 41 MW · 5 23 Jan 2016 · 50 MW · 10 24 Jan 2016 · 688 MW · 119 25 Jan 2016 · 1,063 MW · 147 26 Jan 2016 · 129 MW · 22 27 Jan 2016 · 26 MW · 4 28 Jan 2016 · 75 MW · 11 29 Jan 2016 · 86 MW · 17 30 Jan 2016 · 130 MW · 23 31 Jan 2016 · 192 MW · 30 1 Feb 2016 · 95 MW · 10 2 Feb 2016 · 153 MW · 14 3 Feb 2016 · 1,410 MW · 111 4 Feb 2016 · 769 MW · 80 5 Feb 2016 · 67 MW · 26 6 Feb 2016 · 554 MW · 103 7 Feb 2016 · 786 MW · 116 8 Feb 2016 · 322 MW · 52 9 Feb 2016 · 140 MW · 39 10 Feb 2016 · 117 MW · 34 11 Feb 2016 · 86 MW · 29 12 Feb 2016 · 77 MW · 4 13 Feb 2016 · 72 MW · 13 14 Feb 2016 · 190 MW · 24 15 Feb 2016 · 157 MW · 37 16 Feb 2016 · 962 MW · 91 17 Feb 2016 · 971 MW · 113 18 Feb 2016 · 1,348 MW · 147 19 Feb 2016 · 620 MW · 71 20 Feb 2016 · 509 MW · 75 21 Feb 2016 · 433 MW · 75 22 Feb 2016 · 193 MW · 46 23 Feb 2016 · 556 MW · 63 24 Feb 2016 · 676 MW · 110 25 Feb 2016 · 26 MW · 3 26 Feb 2016 · 3,523 MW · 193 27 Feb 2016 · 808 MW · 161 28 Feb 2016 · 2,488 MW · 244 29 Feb 2016 · 419 MW · 59 1 Mar 2016 · 1,575 MW · 124 2 Mar 2016 · 833 MW · 98 3 Mar 2016 · 624 MW · 72 4 Mar 2016 · 325 MW · 25 5 Mar 2016 · 219 MW · 43
22 Jan 29 Jan 5 Feb 12 Feb 19 Feb 26 Feb 4 Mar

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
65km/h · peak gust
32%lowest humidity

It had gone 12 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 14% of the area of London (220 km² against 1,583 km²).

London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).

This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.

What happened to each town

  1. Santuk
    16,728 ha
    6.4 %
  2. Prek Prasab where it started
    5,375 ha
    3.9 %

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 2015
Built-up area3.4 ha
Residents≈ 700

Inside the perimeter there were about 3.4 hectares of built-up land and about 700 residents (GHSL 2015, 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.

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)
22 Jan 35.1 °C 42 % 18 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
23 Jan 36.3 °C 38 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
24 Jan 33.2 °C 39 % 55 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
25 Jan 30.0 °C 39 % 56 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
26 Jan 32.0 °C 40 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
27 Jan 32.8 °C 45 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
28 Jan 34.3 °C 46 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
29 Jan 35.6 °C 44 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
30 Jan 34.9 °C 47 % 21 km/h 0.5 mm Moderate 21
31 Jan 35.3 °C 41 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
1 Feb 35.8 °C 38 % 30 km/h 0.3 mm Moderate 21
2 Feb 35.0 °C 39 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
3 Feb 34.0 °C 40 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
4 Feb 34.1 °C 41 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
5 Feb 34.5 °C 41 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
6 Feb 31.8 °C 37 % 56 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
7 Feb 28.2 °C 35 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
8 Feb 29.6 °C 39 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
9 Feb 32.3 °C 37 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
10 Feb 34.2 °C 36 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
11 Feb 34.6 °C 36 % 18 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
12 Feb 34.8 °C 37 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
13 Feb 34.5 °C 44 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
14 Feb 35.5 °C 41 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
15 Feb 36.2 °C 37 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
16 Feb 34.4 °C 40 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
17 Feb 34.3 °C 37 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
18 Feb 34.3 °C 32 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
19 Feb 34.9 °C 33 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
20 Feb 34.2 °C 34 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
21 Feb 34.1 °C 38 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
22 Feb 34.9 °C 41 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
23 Feb 35.4 °C 40 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
24 Feb 35.8 °C 33 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
25 Feb 32.8 °C 38 % 65 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
26 Feb 34.4 °C 38 % 56 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
27 Feb 35.0 °C 39 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
28 Feb 34.6 °C 37 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
29 Feb 33.4 °C 37 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
1 Mar 33.9 °C 36 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
2 Mar 34.6 °C 36 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
3 Mar 34.9 °C 40 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
4 Mar 35.3 °C 42 % 17 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
5 Mar after 35.3 °C 45 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
6 Mar after 34.8 °C 47 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
7 Mar after 36.3 °C 40 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
8 Mar after 36.0 °C 45 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
9 Mar after 36.2 °C 46 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
10 Mar after 36.5 °C 45 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
11 Mar after 36.0 °C 45 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
12 Mar after 35.4 °C 47 % 18 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
13 Mar after 35.6 °C 45 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
14 Mar after 37.0 °C 41 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 31

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 15 Jan 2016
After · 11 Mar 2016

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 · 3,141Every 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 Cambodia ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Prek Prasab fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 22 January 2016 and 4 March 2016: 43 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 21,964 hectares (219.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Santuk (16,728 ha, 6.4 %); Prek Prasab (5,375 ha, 3.9 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.3 °C, humidity dropped to 32 % and gusts hit 65 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 45, class Very high.
Where does this data come from?
From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Cambodia (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.

RSS Changes to this page

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
What do you think is wrong?

We will only use your email to reply about this report. Privacy.

How we know this
  • Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery; 5 polygons grouped in this page.
  • Dates from the perimeter: the VIIRS detections inside it did not change them. 3,141 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 2015, 100 m cells), summed inside the perimeter: an estimate of what was there, not a damage count.

How we build fire pages: methodology ›

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 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)). 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.