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Bengkalis fire, March 2016 Bengkalis

Out · last detection 6 Apr 2016, 06:45 UTC

The fire started on 28 March 2016 in Bengkalis, Indonesia, and satellites saw it burning for 10 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,119 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 30th largest in Riau since 2016 (of 110 with a page). Number 11 in Indonesia in 2016, of 46.

Burnt area
3,119ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
10days
28 Mar 2016 – 6 Apr 2016
Municipalities hit
1
regencies
Started on
28 Mar
2016
Heat detections
248
in a single hotspot: 209 MW
Danger at start
1
Very low · FWI index
Energy released
5.0GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

6 Apr 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 28 Mar6 Apr

How it evolved, day by day

2829303112346

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

The weather it burned in

31°high
31km/h · peak gust
51%lowest humidity

It had gone 0 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.5 mm on 14 Apr.

This area had burned before

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

What happened to each town

  1. Bengkalis where it started
    3,140 ha reached on 28 Mar
    0.4 %

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)
28 Mar 29.3 °C 68 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 1
29 Mar 29.7 °C 68 % 28 km/h 0.6 mm Very low 2
30 Mar 30.3 °C 64 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 3
31 Mar 30.6 °C 59 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 5
1 Apr 31.0 °C 56 % 28 km/h 0.2 mm Low 6
2 Apr 31.3 °C 51 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Low 7
3 Apr 29.6 °C 73 % 27 km/h 0.4 mm Very low 5
4 Apr 30.0 °C 71 % 23 km/h 2.1 mm Very low 1
5 Apr 28.4 °C 81 % 21 km/h 6.3 mm Very low 0
6 Apr 29.6 °C 72 % 21 km/h 4.6 mm Very low 0
7 Apr after 29.4 °C 71 % 19 km/h 2.9 mm Very low 0
8 Apr after 30.0 °C 69 % 17 km/h 4.9 mm Very low 0
9 Apr after 29.4 °C 76 % 19 km/h 6.7 mm Very low 0
10 Apr after 30.5 °C 70 % 18 km/h 5.9 mm Very low 0
11 Apr after 29.5 °C 78 % 20 km/h 9.5 mm Very low 0
12 Apr after 29.8 °C 77 % 31 km/h 4.6 mm Very low 0
13 Apr after 30.1 °C 76 % 28 km/h 3.6 mm Very low 0
14 Apr after 30.2 °C 72 % 21 km/h 1.5 mm Very low 0

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 21 Mar 2016
After · 13 Apr 2016

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 · 248Every 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

Other fires nearby

All fires in Indonesia ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Bengkalis fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 28 March 2016 and 6 April 2016: 10 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 3,119 hectares (31.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Bengkalis (3,140 ha, 0.4 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 31.3 °C, humidity dropped to 51 % and gusts hit 31 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 7, class Low.
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.