Vilabuly fire, 9 March 2021 Vilabuly
The fire started on 9 March 2021 in Vilabuly, Laos, and satellites saw it burning for 22 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 11,672 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 6th largest in Savannakhet since 2016 (of 96 with a page). The largest in Laos in 2021, of 86.
- Burnt area
- 11,672ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 22days
- 9 Mar 2021 – 30 Mar 2021
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- districts
- Started on
- 9 Mar
- 2021
- Heat detections
- 500
- in a single hotspot: 358 MW
- Danger at start
- 18
- Moderate · FWI index
- Energy released
- 11.8GW
- 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 4 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 2.0 mm on 1 Apr.
This area had burned before
85% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 3,598 ha in 2016, 887 ha in 2017, 112 ha in 2018, 6,312 ha in 2019, 7,583 ha in 2020. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 9,864 ha that had burned before.
- 2,966 ha Vilabuly fire, February 2020 4,038 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,995 ha Vilabuly fire, March 2020 4,952 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,762 ha Vilabuly fire, February 2019 2,517 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,523 ha Vilabuly fire, March 2020 2,009 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 941 ha Vilabuly fire, March 2019 3,774 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 217 ha Vilabuly fire, March 2017 2,076 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Vilabuly where it started11,738 ha reached on 9 Mar6.6 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 9 Mar | 34.3 °C | 42 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 18 |
| 10 Mar | 33.1 °C | 41 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 18 |
| 11 Mar | 33.8 °C | 39 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 12 Mar | 32.4 °C | 42 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 13 Mar | 32.3 °C | 43 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 14 Mar | 32.2 °C | 41 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 23 |
| 15 Mar | 36.0 °C | 31 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 23 |
| 16 Mar | 36.0 °C | 34 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 17 Mar | 35.5 °C | 37 % | 18 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 18 Mar | 38.4 °C | 25 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 19 Mar | 37.0 °C | 39 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 20 Mar | 36.9 °C | 40 % | 27 km/h | 2.8 mm | Low 10 |
| 21 Mar | 31.9 °C | 60 % | 51 km/h | 7.3 mm | Very low 4 |
| 22 Mar | 23.0 °C | 60 % | 73 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 11 |
| 23 Mar | 27.1 °C | 47 % | 52 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 14 |
| 24 Mar | 28.6 °C | 54 % | 48 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 15 |
| 25 Mar | 33.4 °C | 41 % | 35 km/h | 0.2 mm | Moderate 18 |
| 26 Mar | 36.0 °C | 39 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 19 |
| 27 Mar | 36.4 °C | 37 % | 27 km/h | 0.2 mm | Moderate 19 |
| 28 Mar | 35.9 °C | 40 % | 35 km/h | 0.1 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 29 Mar | 37.5 °C | 35 % | 38 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 24 |
| 30 Mar | 36.7 °C | 38 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 31 Mar after | 37.4 °C | 39 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 1 Apr after | 37.1 °C | 41 % | 37 km/h | 2.0 mm | Moderate 14 |
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 · 500Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 7,158 haVilabulyFebruary 2023 · 32 days · 5 km away
- 8,618 haVilabuly3 March 2022 · 13 days · 6 km away
- 6,558 haVilabulyApril 2022 · 6 days · 14 km away
- 7,241 haVilabuly24 March 2026 · 25 days · 15 km away
- 11,085 haXaybuathong25 February 2020 · 26 days · 34 km away
- 6,683 haXaybuathong9 March 2021 · 12 days · 35 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Vilabuly fire last?
- According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 9 March 2021 to 30 March 2021 (22 days). The perimeter dates it from 9 March 2021 to 23 March 2021.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 11,672 hectares (116.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Vilabuly (11,738 ha, 6.6 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 38.4 °C, humidity dropped to 25 % and gusts hit 73 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 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.