Sesan fire, 19 January 2016 Sesan
The fire started on 19 January 2016 in Sesan, Cambodia, and satellites saw it burning for 8 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 6,998 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 13th largest in Stung Treng since 2016 (of 130 with a page). Number 12 in Cambodia in 2016, of 116.
- Burnt area
- 6,998ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 8days
- 19 Jan 2016 – 26 Jan 2016
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- districts
- Started on
- 19 Jan
- 2016
- Heat detections
- 297
- in a single hotspot: 49 MW
- Danger at start
- 7
- Low · FWI index
- Energy released
- 997MW
- 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 one day 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.
What happened to each town
-
Sesan where it started7,040 ha reached on 13 Jan2.6 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 19 Jan | 34.5 °C | 51 % | 26 km/h | 1.8 mm | Low 7 |
| 20 Jan | 35.5 °C | 41 % | 29 km/h | 0.3 mm | Moderate 16 |
| 21 Jan | 36.1 °C | 38 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 22 Jan | 34.4 °C | 50 % | 19 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 17 |
| 23 Jan | 36.9 °C | 41 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 24 Jan | 32.4 °C | 38 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 25 Jan | 30.1 °C | 35 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 26 Jan | 32.1 °C | 35 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 23 |
| 27 Jan after | 33.0 °C | 41 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 23 |
| 28 Jan after | 35.1 °C | 44 % | 25 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 22 |
| 29 Jan after | 35.1 °C | 45 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 30 Jan after | 35.5 °C | 39 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 23 |
| 31 Jan after | 35.3 °C | 39 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 1 Feb after | 35.9 °C | 38 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 2 Feb after | 34.8 °C | 34 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 3 Feb after | 33.7 °C | 35 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 4 Feb after | 34.2 °C | 36 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 5 Feb after | 34.6 °C | 37 % | 32 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.
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 · 297Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 16,629 haSesan22 January 2021 · 17 days · 4 km away
- 13,216 haSesanDecember 2019 · 37 days · 4 km away
- 17,221 haSesan5 February 2017 · 38 days · 5 km away
- 30,976 haSesanDecember 2025 · 58 days · 10 km away
- 22,903 haSiem Pang2 February 2026 · 47 days · 25 km away
- 18,577 haSambour22 January 2016 · 88 days · 33 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Sesan fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 19 January 2016 and 26 January 2016: 8 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 6,998 hectares (70.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Sesan (7,040 ha, 2.6 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 36.9 °C, humidity dropped to 35 % and gusts hit 44 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 25, 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
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 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.