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Sambour fire, 3 February 2023 Sambour, Sandan, Santuk

Out · last detection 13 Mar 2023, 18:07 UTC

The fire started on 3 February 2023 in Sambour, Cambodia, and satellites saw it burning for 39 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 7,640 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.

It is the 14th largest in Kratie since 2016 (of 80 with a page). The largest in Cambodia in 2023, of 25.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Sambour · 2022Sambour · 2021Sambour · 2017Sambour · 2020

Burnt area
7,640ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
39days
3 Feb 2023 – 13 Mar 2023
Municipalities hit
3
districts
Started on
3 Feb
2023
Heat detections
820
in a single hotspot: 128 MW
Danger at start
16
Moderate · FWI index
Average daily power
209MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 3 Feb13 Mar
13 Mar 2023

How it evolved, day by day

3 Feb 2023 · 5 MW · 1 4 Feb 2023 · 57 MW · 8 5 Feb 2023 · 111 MW · 9 6 Feb 2023 · 6 MW · 1 8 Feb 2023 · 1 MW · 2 11 Feb 2023 · 124 MW · 8 12 Feb 2023 · 7 MW · 4 13 Feb 2023 · 52 MW · 2 14 Feb 2023 · 2 MW · 1 15 Feb 2023 · 370 MW · 26 16 Feb 2023 · 763 MW · 76 17 Feb 2023 · 1,086 MW · 61 18 Feb 2023 · 224 MW · 36 19 Feb 2023 · 54 MW · 8 20 Feb 2023 · 126 MW · 16 21 Feb 2023 · 335 MW · 45 22 Feb 2023 · 129 MW · 14 23 Feb 2023 · 74 MW · 16 24 Feb 2023 · 463 MW · 40 25 Feb 2023 · 1,008 MW · 69 26 Feb 2023 · 17 MW · 11 27 Feb 2023 · 49 MW · 14 28 Feb 2023 · 274 MW · 31 1 Mar 2023 · 204 MW · 29 2 Mar 2023 · 77 MW · 15 3 Mar 2023 · 365 MW · 51 4 Mar 2023 · 327 MW · 36 5 Mar 2023 · 297 MW · 40 6 Mar 2023 · 152 MW · 23 7 Mar 2023 · 77 MW · 18 8 Mar 2023 · 206 MW · 24 9 Mar 2023 · 58 MW · 14 10 Mar 2023 · 86 MW · 15 11 Mar 2023 · 46 MW · 9 12 Mar 2023 · 185 MW · 21 13 Mar 2023 · 91 MW · 26
3 Feb 12 Feb 17 Feb 18 Feb 24 Feb 2 Mar 8 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

35°high
57km/h · peak gust
30%lowest humidity

It had gone 20 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

87% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 222 ha in 2016, 218 ha in 2017, 8 ha in 2018, 89 ha in 2019, 1,000 ha in 2020, 6,599 ha in 2021, 6,241 ha in 2022. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 6,660 ha that had burned before.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 4.8% of the area of London (76 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. Sambour where it started
    7,313 ha reached on 3 Feb
    1.4 %
  2. Sandan
    355 ha reached on 16 Feb
    0.1 %
  3. Santuk
    11 ha reached on 21 Feb
    0.0 %

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 2025
Built-up area< 0.1 ha
Residents< 20

Inside the perimeter there was no noticeable built-up land and almost nobody lived there (GHSL 2025, 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. The GHSL 2025 epoch is a projection made from 2020 and earlier data.

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)
3 Feb 34.2 °C 42 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
4 Feb 34.2 °C 41 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
5 Feb 34.5 °C 37 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 17
6 Feb 33.4 °C 51 % 18 km/h 0.2 mm Moderate 16
7 Feb 33.5 °C 51 % 18 km/h 0.2 mm Moderate 16
8 Feb 34.0 °C 47 % 21 km/h 0.3 mm Moderate 16
9 Feb 34.5 °C 44 % 21 km/h 0.1 mm Moderate 17
10 Feb 33.0 °C 52 % 19 km/h 0.4 mm Moderate 17
11 Feb 34.3 °C 45 % 16 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 17
12 Feb 34.1 °C 48 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
13 Feb 33.5 °C 49 % 25 km/h 0.2 mm Moderate 19
14 Feb 32.9 °C 57 % 24 km/h 0.6 mm Moderate 14
15 Feb 33.0 °C 46 % 46 km/h 0.2 mm Moderate 20
16 Feb 33.9 °C 33 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
17 Feb 33.5 °C 37 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
18 Feb 31.1 °C 50 % 32 km/h 0.5 mm Moderate 21
19 Feb 33.1 °C 46 % 28 km/h 0.2 mm Moderate 20
20 Feb 33.2 °C 37 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
21 Feb 33.6 °C 33 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
22 Feb 32.7 °C 35 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
23 Feb 33.0 °C 39 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
24 Feb 33.9 °C 37 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
25 Feb 32.9 °C 30 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
26 Feb 32.9 °C 30 % 57 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
27 Feb 33.0 °C 36 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
28 Feb 34.5 °C 38 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
1 Mar 35.0 °C 38 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
2 Mar 34.2 °C 37 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
3 Mar 33.5 °C 31 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
4 Mar 33.1 °C 33 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
5 Mar 32.4 °C 33 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
6 Mar 32.8 °C 33 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
7 Mar 33.8 °C 36 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
8 Mar 34.6 °C 32 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
9 Mar 34.0 °C 33 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
10 Mar 33.9 °C 39 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
11 Mar 34.1 °C 44 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
12 Mar 33.8 °C 38 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
13 Mar 33.9 °C 33 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
14 Mar after 34.2 °C 36 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
15 Mar after 34.0 °C 37 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
16 Mar after 34.7 °C 39 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
17 Mar after 35.6 °C 36 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
18 Mar after 34.8 °C 42 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
19 Mar after 35.1 °C 42 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
20 Mar after 35.4 °C 43 % 26 km/h 0.1 mm High 30
21 Mar after 36.7 °C 41 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
22 Mar after 36.0 °C 46 % 29 km/h 0.2 mm High 31
23 Mar after 35.9 °C 49 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 30

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 27 Jan 2023
After · 20 Mar 2023

If the day is cloudy, change the date: each satellite passes once a day. In false colour the burnt ground looks brown or red.

The smoke

CAMS · Copernicus

On 18 February 2023 the air beside the fire reached 767 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 277: 18 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak767 µg/m³
Days over the guideline27 days
PM101,099 µg/m³
Optical depth6.45
8910111213141516171819202122232425262728123456789
Good Fair Moderate Poor Very poor Extremely poor

Particles from the Copernicus CAMS model at the centre of the perimeter; these are not measurements in each town. The pale bar is the worst hour, the solid one the daily average.

Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS)

Detections table · 820Every 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 Sambour fire last?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 3 February 2023 to 13 March 2023 (39 days). The perimeter dates it from 10 February 2023 to 6 March 2023.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 7,640 hectares (76.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 3 municipalities: Sambour (7,313 ha, 1.4 %); Sandan (355 ha, 0.1 %); Santuk (11 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 35.0 °C, humidity dropped to 30 % and gusts hit 57 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 37, class 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 · 2 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
  1. Last day with fire: 6 March 2023 → 13 March 2023.
  2. Start date: 10 February 2023 → 3 February 2023.

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.

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How we know this
  • Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery; 2 polygons grouped in this page.
  • Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 10 February 2023 to 6 March 2023. 820 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 2025, 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.