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Sesan fire, 7 January 2026 Sesan, Koun Mom

Out · last detection 2 Feb 2026, 06:59 UTC

The fire started on 7 January 2026 in Sesan, Cambodia, and satellites saw it burning for 26 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,151 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 61th largest in Stung Treng since 2016 (of 130 with a page). Number 49 in Cambodia in 2026, of 115.

The power measured by the satellite is low (29.2 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.

Burnt area
3,151ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
26days
7 Jan 2026 – 1 Feb 2026
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
7 Jan
2026
Heat detections
101
in a single hotspot: 29 MW
Danger at start
24
High · FWI index
Energy released
538MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

2 Feb 2026
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 7 Jan1 Feb

How it evolved, day by day

7891011141519202122242728293012

Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.

The weather it burned in

33°high
41km/h · peak gust
31%lowest humidity

It had gone 16 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

48% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 84 ha in 2020, 588 ha in 2021, 240 ha in 2022, 1,370 ha in 2024, 196 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 1,523 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Sesan where it started
    3,156 ha reached on 4 Jan
    1.2 %
  2. Koun Mom
    12 ha reached on 4 Jan
    0.0 %

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)
7 Jan 30.2 °C 44 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
8 Jan 29.2 °C 39 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
9 Jan 28.7 °C 33 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
10 Jan 29.5 °C 32 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
11 Jan 30.6 °C 38 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
12 Jan 31.5 °C 41 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 21
13 Jan 31.7 °C 44 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
14 Jan 32.6 °C 39 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
15 Jan 32.9 °C 43 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
16 Jan 33.3 °C 39 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
17 Jan 33.1 °C 39 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
18 Jan 32.1 °C 42 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
19 Jan 32.6 °C 39 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
20 Jan 32.1 °C 39 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
21 Jan 32.1 °C 33 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
22 Jan 32.3 °C 31 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
23 Jan 32.0 °C 33 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
24 Jan 32.4 °C 35 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
25 Jan 32.5 °C 33 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
26 Jan 32.3 °C 37 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
27 Jan 32.3 °C 37 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
28 Jan 32.9 °C 36 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
29 Jan 33.4 °C 32 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
30 Jan 33.1 °C 35 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
31 Jan 33.0 °C 39 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
1 Feb 33.2 °C 32 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
2 Feb after 32.6 °C 38 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
3 Feb after 32.3 °C 43 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
4 Feb after 34.0 °C 36 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
5 Feb after 34.7 °C 38 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
6 Feb after 34.7 °C 40 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
7 Feb after 32.7 °C 49 % 25 km/h 0.5 mm High 25
8 Feb after 33.7 °C 35 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
9 Feb after 35.0 °C 32 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
10 Feb after 35.5 °C 35 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
11 Feb after 33.0 °C 49 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 29

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 31 Dec 2025
After · 8 Feb 2026

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 25 January 2026 the air beside the fire reached 38 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 24: 1.6 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak38 µg/m³
Days over the guideline9 days
PM1039 µg/m³
Optical depth0.59
56789101112131415161718192021222324252627282930311234
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 · 101Every 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 Sesan fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 7 January 2026 and 1 February 2026: 26 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 3,151 hectares (31.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Sesan (3,156 ha, 1.2 %); Koun Mom (12 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 33.4 °C, humidity dropped to 31 % and gusts hit 41 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 30, 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.

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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.