Viengthong fire, April 2019 Viengthong
The fire started on 19 April 2019 in Viengthong, Laos, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,085 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 37th largest in Bolikhamsai since 2016 (of 39 with a page). Number 104 in Laos in 2019, of 117.
- Burnt area
- 2,085ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 6days
- 19 Apr 2019 – 24 Apr 2019
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- districts
- Started on
- 19 Apr
- 2019
- Heat detections
- 46
- in a single hotspot: 202 MW
- Energy released
- 2.1GW
- 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.
This area had burned before
No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.
What happened to each town
-
Viengthong where it started2,095 ha reached on 19 Apr0.5 %
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.
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 · 46Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 6,653 haViengthong27 March 2026 · 22 days · 13 km away
- 11,863 haBolikhanh26 March 2026 · 23 days · 15 km away
- 10,780 haViengthong28 March 2026 · 21 days · 17 km away
- 3,607 haMork28 February 2022 · 15 days · 30 km away
- 8,791 haBolikhanh14 March 2026 · 38 days · 35 km away
- 8,830 haBung KhlaApril 2026 · 16 days · 36 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Viengthong fire last?
- According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 19 April 2019 to 24 April 2019 (6 days). The perimeter dates it from 19 April 2019 to 21 April 2019.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 2,085 hectares (20.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Viengthong (2,095 ha, 0.5 %).
- 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
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 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.