West Phaileng fire, April 2026 West Phaileng
The fire started on 12 April 2026 in West Phaileng, India, and satellites saw it burning for 11 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 18,904 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
We are reviewing this page: some of its data look inconsistent (the place, the dates or the area), so treat them with caution.
- Burnt area
- 18,904ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 11days
- 12 Apr 2026 – 22 Apr 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- subdistricts
- Started on
- 12 Apr
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 369
- in a single hotspot: 200 MW
- Danger at start
- 12
- Moderate · FWI index
- Energy released
- 8.6GW
- 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 one day without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 38.7 mm on 28 Apr.
This area had burned before
95% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 4,850 ha in 2016, 5,183 ha in 2017, 7,490 ha in 2018, 9,673 ha in 2019, 9,145 ha in 2020, 8,884 ha in 2021, 5,450 ha in 2022, 9,827 ha in 2023, 5,047 ha in 2024, 10,529 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 18,004 ha that had burned before.
- 3,503 ha West Phaileng fire, March 2018 5,011 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 698 ha West Phaileng fire, April 2023 10,216 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 150 ha West Phaileng fire, March 2022 5,742 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 148 ha West Phaileng fire, March 2023 5,448 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 113 ha West Phaileng fire, March 2016 7,670 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
West Phaileng where it started1,139 ha reached on 13 Apr1.1 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 11 Apr | 33.2 °C | 32 % | 28 km/h | 0.1 mm | Moderate 12 |
| 12 Apr | 33.6 °C | 38 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 15 |
| 13 Apr | 34.8 °C | 41 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 16 |
| 14 Apr | 34.1 °C | 48 % | 33 km/h | 0.1 mm | Moderate 16 |
| 15 Apr | 34.4 °C | 45 % | 33 km/h | 0.2 mm | Moderate 17 |
| 16 Apr | 33.4 °C | 48 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 16 |
| 17 Apr | 35.8 °C | 43 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 17 |
| 18 Apr | 34.8 °C | 45 % | 28 km/h | 0.1 mm | Moderate 18 |
| 19 Apr | 35.3 °C | 48 % | 34 km/h | 0.2 mm | Moderate 19 |
| 20 Apr | 35.2 °C | 50 % | 44 km/h | 0.4 mm | High 22 |
| 21 Apr | 34.3 °C | 52 % | 44 km/h | 0.7 mm | Moderate 17 |
| 22 Apr | 35.1 °C | 49 % | 41 km/h | 0.2 mm | Moderate 18 |
| 23 Apr after | 35.8 °C | 44 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 17 |
| 24 Apr after | 37.1 °C | 40 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 25 Apr after | 36.4 °C | 40 % | 29 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 22 |
| 26 Apr after | 33.4 °C | 49 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 27 Apr after | 27.9 °C | 64 % | 52 km/h | 0.8 mm | Moderate 14 |
| 28 Apr after | 24.7 °C | 78 % | 35 km/h | 38.7 mm | Very low 0 |
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 17 April 2026 the air beside the fire reached 99 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 72: 4.8 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 · 369Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 7,670 haWest PhailengMarch 2016 · 4 days · 11 km away
- 10,216 haWest PhailengApril 2023 · 10 days · 15 km away
- 21,867 haWest BunghmunMarch 2022 · 12 days · 24 km away
- 7,274 haWest BunghmunMarch 2021 · 5 days · 24 km away
- 6,666 haWest BunghmunMarch 2025 · 9 days · 24 km away
- 15,041 haGandacherraApril 2026 · 12 days · 40 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the West Phaileng fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 12 April 2026 and 22 April 2026: 11 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 18,904 hectares (189.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered West Phaileng (1,139 ha, 1.1 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 37.1 °C, humidity dropped to 32 % and gusts hit 44 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 22, class High.
- Where does this data come from?
- From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of India (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: 112
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 ADM3 (Open Data Commons Open Database License 1.0). 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.