Sambour fire, 29 January 2024 Sambour, Sandan
The fire started on 29 January 2024 in Sambour, Cambodia, and satellites saw it burning for 27 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 8,003 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 13th largest in Kratie since 2016 (of 80 with a page). Number 2 in Cambodia in 2024, of 44.
Compare with…
- Burnt area
- 8,003ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 27days
- 29 Jan 2024 – 24 Feb 2024
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- districts
- Started on
- 29 Jan
- 2024
- Heat detections
- 355
- in a single hotspot: 68 MW
- Danger at start
- 32
- High · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 94MW
- detected power per day, on average
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 55 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
85% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 3,772 ha in 2016, 1,862 ha in 2017, 42 ha in 2019, 154 ha in 2020, 3,547 ha in 2021, 827 ha in 2023. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 6,776 ha that had burned before.
- 3,612 ha Sambour fire, January 2016 4,874 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,873 ha Sambour fire, February 2021 2,479 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,252 ha Sambour fire, February 2017 13,270 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 785 ha Sandan fire, February 2023 2,325 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 611 ha Sandan fire, February 2017 2,185 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 341 ha Sambour fire, February 2021 2,458 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
How big is it?
London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).
Paris boundary: geoBoundaries · Institut national de l'information géographique et forestière (IGN-F) (Etalab Open License 2.0).
Madrid boundary: geoBoundaries · Open Data ESRI, IGN Central Registry of Cartography Area (CC BY 4.0).
Berlin boundary: geoBoundaries · Federal Agency for Cartography and Geodesy (dl-de/by-2-0).
This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.
What happened to each town
-
Sambour where it started6,886 ha reached on 29 Jan1.3 %
-
1,163 ha reached on 29 Jan0.4 %
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 2025Inside the perimeter there were about 0.14 hectares of built-up land and about 40 residents (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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 29 Jan | 32.6 °C | 39 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 30 Jan | 33.8 °C | 36 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 31 Jan | 33.9 °C | 43 % | 16 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 1 Feb | 33.5 °C | 49 % | 17 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 24 |
| 2 Feb | 33.8 °C | 52 % | 20 km/h | 0.4 mm | High 23 |
| 3 Feb | 33.5 °C | 55 % | 20 km/h | 0.2 mm | High 22 |
| 4 Feb | 34.2 °C | 52 % | 23 km/h | 0.5 mm | High 22 |
| 5 Feb | 34.3 °C | 52 % | 23 km/h | 0.3 mm | High 24 |
| 6 Feb | 33.8 °C | 57 % | 21 km/h | 0.8 mm | Moderate 16 |
| 7 Feb | 33.7 °C | 56 % | 22 km/h | 0.5 mm | Moderate 18 |
| 8 Feb | 33.1 °C | 58 % | 24 km/h | 0.3 mm | Moderate 18 |
| 9 Feb | 34.8 °C | 46 % | 26 km/h | 0.5 mm | High 24 |
| 10 Feb | 34.7 °C | 40 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 11 Feb | 33.8 °C | 36 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 12 Feb | 33.1 °C | 36 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 13 Feb | 34.8 °C | 36 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 14 Feb | 35.3 °C | 42 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 15 Feb | 36.6 °C | 38 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 16 Feb | 35.7 °C | 40 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 17 Feb | 35.4 °C | 34 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 18 Feb | 36.3 °C | 38 % | 18 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 19 Feb | 34.8 °C | 45 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 20 Feb | 34.9 °C | 45 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 21 Feb | 35.3 °C | 45 % | 29 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 29 |
| 22 Feb | 35.7 °C | 42 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 23 Feb | 36.0 °C | 42 % | 21 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 24 Feb | 36.2 °C | 36 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 25 Feb after | 36.0 °C | 35 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 26 Feb after | 35.0 °C | 36 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 27 Feb after | 35.1 °C | 45 % | 41 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 34 |
| 28 Feb after | 37.1 °C | 34 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 29 Feb after | 36.5 °C | 39 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 1 Mar after | 36.4 °C | 34 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 2 Mar after | 35.2 °C | 41 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 3 Mar after | 36.3 °C | 40 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 4 Mar after | 34.9 °C | 51 % | 27 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 27 |
| 5 Mar after | 36.3 °C | 48 % | 26 km/h | 0.2 mm | High 28 |
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.
The smoke
CAMS · CopernicusOn 14 February 2024 the air beside the fire reached 113 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 47: 3.1 times the WHO daily guideline (15).
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 · 355Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 11,199 haSambour9 February 2026 · 16 days · 4 km away
- 13,270 haSambour18 February 2017 · 25 days · 10 km away
- 7,640 haSambour3 February 2023 · 39 days · 17 km away
- 15,360 haSambour6 January 2021 · 97 days · 22 km away
- 23,495 haSambour7 February 2021 · 55 days · 25 km away
- 16,437 haSambour25 January 2020 · 44 days · 27 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Sambour fire last?
- According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 29 January 2024 to 24 February 2024 (27 days). The perimeter dates it from 5 February 2024 to 17 February 2024.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 8,003 hectares (80.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Sambour (6,886 ha, 1.3 %); Sandan (1,163 ha, 0.4 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 36.6 °C, humidity dropped to 34 % and gusts hit 45 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 33, 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.
- Last day with fire: 17 February 2024 → 24 February 2024.
- Start date: 5 February 2024 → 29 January 2024.
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
How we know this
- Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery.
- Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 5 February 2024 to 17 February 2024. 355 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.
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.