Ta Oi fire, 8 March 2026 Ta Oi
The fire started on 8 March 2026 in Ta Oi, Laos, and satellites saw it burning for 39 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 33,776 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the largest fire in Salavan since 2016 (of 38 with a page). Number 10 in Laos in 2026, of 308.
Compare with…
Suggestions: Ta Oi · 2022Ta Oi · 2021Ta Oi · 2024Ta Oi · 2024
- Burnt area
- 33,776ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 39days
- 8 Mar 2026 – 15 Apr 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- districts
- Started on
- 8 Mar
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 1,530
- in a single hotspot: 450 MW
- Danger at start
- 20
- Moderate · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 1.2GW
- 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 one day without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.2 mm on 16 Apr.
This area had burned before
76% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 6,686 ha in 2016, 2,442 ha in 2017, 5,919 ha in 2018, 1,146 ha in 2019, 6,236 ha in 2020, 6,773 ha in 2021, 8,191 ha in 2022, 6,346 ha in 2023, 10,091 ha in 2024, 5,753 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 25,772 ha that had burned before.
- 4,697 ha Ta Oi fire, April 2022 7,937 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,541 ha Ta Oi fire, March 2021 2,738 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,237 ha Ta Oi fire, April 2024 4,096 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,137 ha Ta Oi fire, March 2024 2,219 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,100 ha Ta Oi fire, March 2020 6,542 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,945 ha Ta Oi fire, March 2021 2,587 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,727 ha Ta Oi fire, April 2022 2,496 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,700 ha Ta Oi fire, March 2025 2,005 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
-
Ta Oi where it started33,963 ha13 %
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 14 hectares of built-up land and about 6,300 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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8 Mar | 32.1 °C | 34 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 9 Mar | 31.8 °C | 41 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 23 |
| 10 Mar | 25.7 °C | 60 % | 56 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 18 |
| 11 Mar | 28.9 °C | 47 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 17 |
| 12 Mar | 27.9 °C | 50 % | 45 km/h | 0.4 mm | Moderate 18 |
| 13 Mar | 27.9 °C | 48 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 18 |
| 14 Mar | 29.5 °C | 44 % | 41 km/h | 0.1 mm | Moderate 19 |
| 15 Mar | 30.4 °C | 39 % | 37 km/h | 0.3 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 16 Mar | 30.7 °C | 41 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 17 Mar | 32.6 °C | 34 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 21 |
| 18 Mar | 33.0 °C | 37 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 19 Mar | 32.2 °C | 43 % | 25 km/h | 0.6 mm | Moderate 18 |
| 20 Mar | 31.7 °C | 46 % | 27 km/h | 5.4 mm | Very low 3 |
| 21 Mar | 33.0 °C | 40 % | 26 km/h | 0.1 mm | Moderate 13 |
| 22 Mar | 33.0 °C | 46 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 15 |
| 23 Mar | 33.8 °C | 44 % | 25 km/h | 0.4 mm | Moderate 16 |
| 24 Mar | 33.1 °C | 49 % | 24 km/h | 1.4 mm | Low 9 |
| 25 Mar | 35.1 °C | 39 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 19 |
| 26 Mar | 35.4 °C | 39 % | 23 km/h | 0.6 mm | Moderate 18 |
| 27 Mar | 36.5 °C | 34 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 28 Mar | 34.7 °C | 42 % | 30 km/h | 1.4 mm | Moderate 14 |
| 29 Mar | 35.7 °C | 31 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 30 Mar | 36.3 °C | 28 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 31 Mar | 36.6 °C | 28 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 1 Apr | 36.9 °C | 30 % | 26 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 27 |
| 2 Apr | 36.3 °C | 33 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 3 Apr | 35.9 °C | 35 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 4 Apr | 34.7 °C | 38 % | 38 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 31 |
| 5 Apr | 35.8 °C | 34 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 6 Apr | 37.3 °C | 31 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 7 Apr | 37.0 °C | 29 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 8 Apr | 38.9 °C | 25 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 9 Apr | 37.8 °C | 29 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 10 Apr | 37.1 °C | 32 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 11 Apr | 37.1 °C | 31 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 12 Apr | 37.9 °C | 30 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 13 Apr | 37.6 °C | 30 % | 36 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 37 |
| 14 Apr | 37.9 °C | 31 % | 31 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 36 |
| 15 Apr | 36.6 °C | 33 % | 30 km/h | 0.2 mm | High 36 |
| 16 Apr after | 35.7 °C | 39 % | 28 km/h | 1.2 mm | High 21 |
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 27 March 2026 the air beside the fire reached 81 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 53: 3.5 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 · 1,530Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Ta Oi fire last?
- According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 8 March 2026 to 15 April 2026 (39 days). The perimeter dates it from 8 March 2026 to 14 April 2026.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 33,776 hectares (337.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Ta Oi (33,963 ha, 13 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 38.9 °C, humidity dropped to 25 % and gusts hit 56 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 39, class Very high.
- Where does this data come from?
- From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Laos (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 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
No changes since 24 October 2026.
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; 5 polygons grouped in this page.
- Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 8 March 2026 to 14 April 2026. 1,530 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 3.0 Intergovernmental Organisations (CC BY 3.0 IGO)). 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.