The use of high temperature superconducting (HTS) materials offers the potential to increase the operating temperature or field strength of coils used in a fusion reactor such as the Chinese Fusion Engineering Test Reactor (CFETR). REBCO cable is one of considered solution to be CFETR central solenoid (CS) coils. However, quench detection is one of the key challenges in the use of HTS magnets. HTS magnets exhibit much lower quenching velocity, and their thermal properties play an important role in HTS quench detection. In addition to voltage-based quench detection schemes, novel methods should be considered for quench detection in the HTS coils. In this paper, the distributed optical fiber sensing equipment was used to measure the normal zone propagation and hot spot location of a REBCO sample cable bathing in liquid nitrogen. A heater was mounted on the surface of the cable to induce a quench. Meanwhile, voltage taps and thermocouples were used to monitor the quench.