Sesan fire, 4 January 2024 Sesan
The fire started on 4 January 2024 in Sesan, Cambodia, and satellites saw it burning for 21 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 6,102 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 17th largest in Stung Treng since 2016 (of 130 with a page). Number 6 in Cambodia in 2024, of 41.
- Burnt area
- 6,102ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 21days
- 4 Jan 2024 – 24 Jan 2024
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- districts
- Started on
- 4 Jan
- 2024
- Heat detections
- 431
- in a single hotspot: 44 MW
- Danger at start
- 20
- Moderate · FWI index
- Energy released
- 2.4GW
- 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 30 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
94% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,659 ha in 2016, 218 ha in 2017, 1,469 ha in 2019, 1,744 ha in 2020, 5,325 ha in 2021, 3,376 ha in 2022. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 5,747 ha that had burned before.
- 3,869 ha Sesan fire, January 2021 16,629 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,455 ha Sesan fire, December 2019 13,216 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,183 ha Sesan fire, January 2016 6,998 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 645 ha Sesan fire, January 2022 11,364 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Sesan where it started6,141 ha reached on 4 Jan2.3 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4 Jan | 32.8 °C | 43 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 5 Jan | 31.8 °C | 44 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 19 |
| 6 Jan | 32.4 °C | 45 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 7 Jan | 32.8 °C | 46 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 8 Jan | 33.1 °C | 48 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 19 |
| 9 Jan | 33.6 °C | 49 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 10 Jan | 34.0 °C | 50 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 11 Jan | 33.6 °C | 47 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 12 Jan | 32.8 °C | 48 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 23 |
| 13 Jan | 32.8 °C | 43 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 23 |
| 14 Jan | 32.1 °C | 44 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 23 |
| 15 Jan | 33.0 °C | 39 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 23 |
| 16 Jan | 32.9 °C | 39 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 17 Jan | 33.3 °C | 41 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 23 |
| 18 Jan | 33.7 °C | 41 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 23 |
| 19 Jan | 33.5 °C | 39 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 20 Jan | 33.5 °C | 39 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 23 |
| 21 Jan | 33.8 °C | 42 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 22 Jan | 33.5 °C | 43 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 23 Jan | 33.9 °C | 38 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 24 Jan | 33.9 °C | 36 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 25 Jan after | 33.3 °C | 38 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 26 Jan after | 33.3 °C | 39 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 27 Jan after | 32.7 °C | 39 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 28 Jan after | 32.4 °C | 41 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 29 Jan after | 32.9 °C | 40 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 30 Jan after | 34.0 °C | 37 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 31 Jan after | 34.3 °C | 42 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 1 Feb after | 34.3 °C | 44 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 2 Feb after | 34.4 °C | 50 % | 16 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 23 |
| 3 Feb after | 35.0 °C | 46 % | 18 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
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 · 431Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 30,976 haSesanDecember 2025 · 58 days · 4 km away
- 11,364 haSesan13 January 2022 · 31 days · 4 km away
- 13,216 haSesanDecember 2019 · 37 days · 8 km away
- 16,629 haSesan22 January 2021 · 17 days · 9 km away
- 17,221 haSesan5 February 2017 · 38 days · 11 km away
- 10,697 haSesan8 January 2016 · 93 days · 11 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Sesan fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 4 January 2024 and 24 January 2024: 21 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 6,102 hectares (61.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Sesan (6,141 ha, 2.3 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 34.0 °C, humidity dropped to 36 % and gusts hit 43 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 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.