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Thong Pha Phum fire, 15 March 2023 ทองผาภูมิ · Thong Pha Phum

Out · last detection 23 Apr 2023, 06:06 UTC

The fire started on 15 March 2023 in Thong Pha Phum, Thailand, and satellites saw it burning for 42 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 9,317 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 14th largest in Kanchanaburi Province since 2016 (of 248 with a page). Number 9 in Thailand in 2023, of 369.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Thong Pha Phum · 2019Thong Pha Phum · 2019Thong Pha Phum · 2016Thong Pha Phum · 2020

Burnt area
9,317ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
42days
15 Mar 2023 – 25 Apr 2023
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
15 Mar
2023
Heat detections
487
in a single hotspot: 93 MW
Danger at start
27
High · FWI index
Average daily power
82MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 15 Mar25 Apr
23 Apr 2023

How it evolved, day by day

15 Mar 2023 · 9 MW · 4 17 Mar 2023 · 9 MW · 3 18 Mar 2023 · 19 MW · 7 19 Mar 2023 · 6 MW · 1 20 Mar 2023 · 3 MW · 4 21 Mar 2023 · 18 MW · 8 22 Mar 2023 · 41 MW · 11 23 Mar 2023 · 13 MW · 7 24 Mar 2023 · 30 MW · 7 25 Mar 2023 · 50 MW · 11 26 Mar 2023 · 138 MW · 35 27 Mar 2023 · 165 MW · 21 28 Mar 2023 · 181 MW · 22 29 Mar 2023 · 102 MW · 17 30 Mar 2023 · 603 MW · 46 31 Mar 2023 · 462 MW · 37 1 Apr 2023 · 237 MW · 18 2 Apr 2023 · 34 MW · 5 3 Apr 2023 · 26 MW · 10 4 Apr 2023 · 19 MW · 7 5 Apr 2023 · 100 MW · 17 6 Apr 2023 · 165 MW · 45 7 Apr 2023 · 25 MW · 12 8 Apr 2023 · 86 MW · 12 9 Apr 2023 · 71 MW · 11 10 Apr 2023 · 107 MW · 19 11 Apr 2023 · 98 MW · 21 12 Apr 2023 · 89 MW · 15 13 Apr 2023 · 8 MW · 2 14 Apr 2023 · 13 MW · 3 15 Apr 2023 · 19 MW · 3 16 Apr 2023 · 3 MW · 3 17 Apr 2023 · 3 MW · 3 18 Apr 2023 · 27 MW · 5 19 Apr 2023 · 39 MW · 10 20 Apr 2023 · 70 MW · 9 21 Apr 2023 · 3 MW · 1 22 Apr 2023 · 64 MW · 11 23 Apr 2023 · 24 MW · 4
15 Mar 22 Mar 28 Mar 30 Mar 3 Apr 9 Apr 15 Apr 21 Apr

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

The weather it burned in

38°high
46km/h · peak gust
33%lowest humidity

It had gone 11 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 9.7 mm on 26 Apr.

This area had burned before

63% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,315 ha in 2016, 466 ha in 2018, 2,361 ha in 2019, 3,942 ha in 2020. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 5,844 ha that had burned before.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 5.9% of the area of London (93 km² against 1,583 km²).

London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).

This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.

What happened to each town

  1. Thong Pha Phum ทองผาภูมิ where it started
    9,367 ha reached on 15 Mar
    2.4 %

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 2025
Built-up area< 0.1 ha
Residents< 20

Inside the perimeter there was no noticeable built-up land and almost nobody lived there (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)
2 Mar 34.7 °C 34 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
3 Mar 34.5 °C 35 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
4 Mar 33.1 °C 37 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
5 Mar 33.1 °C 36 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
6 Mar 33.4 °C 37 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
7 Mar 34.0 °C 35 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
8 Mar 35.2 °C 35 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
9 Mar 35.4 °C 36 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
10 Mar 36.0 °C 36 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
11 Mar 34.0 °C 48 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
12 Mar 34.1 °C 46 % 27 km/h 0.4 mm High 24
13 Mar 29.1 °C 50 % 46 km/h 0.4 mm High 26
14 Mar 34.2 °C 40 % 30 km/h 0.2 mm High 24
15 Mar 34.6 °C 42 % 24 km/h 0.7 mm Moderate 21
16 Mar 34.5 °C 44 % 21 km/h 0.1 mm Moderate 21
17 Mar 33.9 °C 46 % 27 km/h 2.4 mm Low 10
18 Mar 35.6 °C 39 % 31 km/h 0.3 mm High 22
19 Mar 34.0 °C 47 % 29 km/h 2.5 mm Low 8
20 Mar 34.5 °C 47 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
21 Mar 35.4 °C 44 % 30 km/h 0.1 mm High 21
22 Mar 35.3 °C 45 % 36 km/h 0.8 mm Moderate 21
23 Mar 33.7 °C 48 % 35 km/h 0.3 mm High 22
24 Mar 35.6 °C 41 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
25 Mar 34.4 °C 45 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
26 Mar 35.1 °C 41 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
27 Mar 36.3 °C 35 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
28 Mar 36.5 °C 34 % 34 km/h 0.1 mm High 29
29 Mar 35.4 °C 42 % 31 km/h 0.3 mm High 28
30 Mar 35.3 °C 38 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
31 Mar 35.1 °C 38 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
1 Apr 35.3 °C 41 % 36 km/h 0.1 mm High 31
2 Apr 34.1 °C 48 % 36 km/h 0.7 mm High 23
3 Apr 34.6 °C 41 % 37 km/h 0.2 mm High 26
4 Apr 34.1 °C 45 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
5 Apr 34.5 °C 44 % 33 km/h 0.3 mm High 25
6 Apr 36.5 °C 37 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
7 Apr 33.3 °C 53 % 26 km/h 0.4 mm High 24
8 Apr 35.5 °C 40 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
9 Apr 36.5 °C 35 % 31 km/h 0.8 mm High 27
10 Apr 36.2 °C 39 % 34 km/h 0.7 mm High 27
11 Apr 35.7 °C 41 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
12 Apr 35.4 °C 44 % 37 km/h 0.4 mm High 28
13 Apr 34.8 °C 48 % 34 km/h 0.3 mm High 28
14 Apr 34.8 °C 47 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
15 Apr 35.5 °C 42 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
16 Apr 35.6 °C 42 % 33 km/h 0.1 mm High 29
17 Apr 36.1 °C 43 % 32 km/h 0.3 mm High 29
18 Apr 35.3 °C 45 % 35 km/h 1.0 mm High 22
19 Apr 35.3 °C 43 % 38 km/h 0.1 mm High 27
20 Apr 34.7 °C 48 % 37 km/h 1.4 mm Moderate 19
21 Apr 35.1 °C 48 % 36 km/h 0.2 mm High 23
22 Apr 37.8 °C 33 % 30 km/h 0.6 mm High 31
23 Apr 36.5 °C 46 % 30 km/h 6.6 mm Low 7
24 Apr 36.3 °C 43 % 20 km/h 0.3 mm Moderate 17
25 Apr 37.7 °C 40 % 26 km/h 2.0 mm Moderate 15
26 Apr after 33.5 °C 51 % 30 km/h 9.7 mm Very low 3

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 8 Mar 2023
After · 2 May 2023

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 31 March 2023 the air beside the fire reached 72 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 48: 3.2 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak72 µg/m³
Days over the guideline46 days
PM10104 µg/m³
Optical depth1.61
1314151617181920212223242526272829303112345678910111213141516171819202122232425262728
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 · 487Every 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 Thailand ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Thong Pha Phum fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 15 March 2023 and 25 April 2023: 42 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 9,317 hectares (93.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Thong Pha Phum (9,367 ha, 2.4 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 37.8 °C, humidity dropped to 33 % and gusts hit 46 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 Thailand (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.

Emergency number: 199 · 191 · Emergency number and official warnings ›

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.

RSS Changes to this page

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
What do you think is wrong?

We will only use your email to reply about this report. Privacy. This is not an emergency service: if there is a fire now, call 199 · 191.

How we know this
  • Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery; 3 polygons grouped in this page.
  • Dates from the perimeter: the VIIRS detections inside it did not change them. 487 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.

How we build fire pages: methodology ›

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.