Sa Thay fire, 11 April 2016 Sa Thay
The fire started on 11 April 2016 in Sa Thay, Vietnam, and satellites saw it burning for 17 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,900 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the largest fire in Kon Tum since 2016 (of 31 with a page). Number 2 in Vietnam in 2016, of 92.
- Burnt area
- 3,900ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 17days
- 11 Apr 2016 – 27 Apr 2016
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- districts
- Started on
- 11 Apr
- 2016
- Heat detections
- 276
- in a single hotspot: 49 MW
- Danger at start
- 28
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 1.2GW
- 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.
The weather it burned in
It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 2.6 mm on 28 Apr.
This area had burned before
No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.
What happened to each town
-
Sa Thay where it started3,920 ha reached on 6 Apr1.6 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 11 Apr | 36.4 °C | 36 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 12 Apr | 35.1 °C | 47 % | 31 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 29 |
| 13 Apr | 35.8 °C | 40 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 14 Apr | 36.8 °C | 34 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 15 Apr | 36.0 °C | 43 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 16 Apr | 36.3 °C | 45 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 17 Apr | 37.5 °C | 44 % | 27 km/h | 1.6 mm | Moderate 17 |
| 18 Apr | 37.2 °C | 44 % | 38 km/h | 1.8 mm | Moderate 18 |
| 19 Apr | 34.9 °C | 41 % | 35 km/h | 0.3 mm | High 25 |
| 20 Apr | 35.8 °C | 39 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 21 Apr | 36.1 °C | 36 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 22 Apr | 35.5 °C | 40 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 23 Apr | 34.4 °C | 44 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 24 Apr | 36.0 °C | 38 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 25 Apr | 36.0 °C | 46 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 26 Apr | 35.4 °C | 53 % | 26 km/h | 0.7 mm | Moderate 19 |
| 27 Apr | 35.9 °C | 51 % | 29 km/h | 0.2 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 28 Apr after | 36.0 °C | 47 % | 28 km/h | 2.6 mm | Moderate 11 |
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 · 276Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 3,296 haSa Thay18 February 2020 · 12 days · 5 km away
- 2,602 haAndoung Meas8 March 2019 · 12 days · 20 km away
- 2,986 haAndoung Meas16 March 2020 · 13 days · 21 km away
- 4,901 haAndoung MeasMarch 2026 · 33 days · 30 km away
- 3,200 haAndoung Meas10 March 2021 · 8 days · 34 km away
- 2,374 haAndoung MeasFebruary 2023 · 9 days · 35 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Sa Thay fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 11 April 2016 and 27 April 2016: 17 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 3,900 hectares (39.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Sa Thay (3,920 ha, 1.6 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 37.5 °C, humidity dropped to 34 % and gusts hit 38 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 31, class High.
- Where does this data come from?
- From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Vietnam (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.
Emergency number: 114
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.