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Bangka fire, August 2026 Bangka

Out · last detection 17 Sept 2026, 06:05 UTC

The fire started on 20 August 2026 in Bangka, Indonesia, and satellites saw it burning for 29 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,081 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 6th largest in Bangka-Belitung Islands since 2016 (of 10 with a page). Number 632 in Indonesia in 2026, of 1005.

Burnt area
2,081ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
29days
20 Aug 2026 – 17 Sept 2026
Municipalities hit
1
regencies
Started on
20 Aug
2026
Heat detections
95
in a single hotspot: 42 MW
Danger at start
30
High · FWI index
Energy released
728MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

17 Sept 2026
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 20 Aug17 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

22232425262728293031123478910111417

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

The weather it burned in

34°high
50km/h · peak gust
35%lowest humidity

It had gone 29 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

61% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,427 ha in 2019, 822 ha in 2023. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 1,274 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Bangka where it started
    1,983 ha reached on 22 Aug
    0.6 %

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)
22 Aug 33.8 °C 37 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
23 Aug 33.5 °C 46 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
24 Aug 32.7 °C 48 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
25 Aug 32.5 °C 47 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
26 Aug 32.4 °C 50 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
27 Aug 33.0 °C 43 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
28 Aug 32.8 °C 52 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
29 Aug 32.3 °C 53 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
30 Aug 32.6 °C 51 % 40 km/h 0.1 mm High 27
31 Aug 33.3 °C 49 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
1 Sept 32.7 °C 50 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
2 Sept 34.0 °C 35 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
3 Sept 32.7 °C 48 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
4 Sept 33.2 °C 49 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
5 Sept 32.2 °C 53 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
6 Sept 33.2 °C 47 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
7 Sept 33.0 °C 46 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
8 Sept 33.2 °C 49 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
9 Sept 33.0 °C 53 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
10 Sept 34.1 °C 44 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
11 Sept 33.2 °C 47 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
12 Sept 31.6 °C 59 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
13 Sept 33.2 °C 53 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
14 Sept 33.2 °C 51 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
15 Sept 33.0 °C 49 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
16 Sept 32.3 °C 48 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
17 Sept 33.2 °C 47 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
18 Sept after 33.8 °C 44 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
19 Sept after 35.0 °C 46 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
20 Sept after 33.8 °C 50 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
21 Sept after 33.2 °C 55 % 39 km/h 0.1 mm High 28
22 Sept after 33.0 °C 56 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
23 Sept after 33.7 °C 52 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
24 Sept after 33.6 °C 53 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
25 Sept after 32.8 °C 56 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
26 Sept after 33.4 °C 54 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
27 Sept after 34.2 °C 50 % 28 km/h 0.1 mm High 24

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 13 Aug 2026
After · 24 Sept 2026

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 13 September 2026 the air beside the fire reached 72 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 40: 2.7 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak72 µg/m³
Days over the guideline12 days
PM1079 µg/m³
Optical depth2.48
21222324252627282930311234567891011121314
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 · 95Every 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

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Bangka fire last?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 20 August 2026 to 17 September 2026 (29 days). The perimeter dates it from 23 August 2026 to 11 September 2026.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 2,081 hectares (20.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Bangka (1,983 ha, 0.6 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 34.1 °C, humidity dropped to 35 % and gusts hit 50 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 35, class High.
Where does this data come from?
From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Indonesia (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
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 112.

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.