Berau fire, 30 August 2023 Berau
The fire started on 30 August 2023 in Berau, Indonesia, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 1,606 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 88th largest in East Kalimantan since 2016 (of 97 with a page). Number 140 in Indonesia in 2023, of 168.
We have the GWIS perimeter for this fire, but the VIIRS sensors did not capture it in enough detail: no day-by-day evolution, but the split by municipality is there.
- Burnt area
- 1,606ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 4days
- 30 Aug 2023 – 2 Sept 2023
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- regencies
- Started on
- 30 Aug
- 2023
- Danger at start
- 9
- Low · FWI index
Where it burned
The weather it burned in
It had gone one day without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 2.8 mm on 5 Sept.
This area had burned before
78% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 137 ha in 2016, 21 ha in 2018, 1,725 ha in 2019. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 1,258 ha that had burned before.
What happened to each town
-
Berau where it started1,617 ha0.1 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 30 Aug | 35.8 °C | 44 % | 32 km/h | 0.2 mm | Low 9 |
| 31 Aug | 35.2 °C | 51 % | 31 km/h | 1.7 mm | Very low 5 |
| 1 Sept | 35.3 °C | 46 % | 37 km/h | 0.5 mm | Low 10 |
| 2 Sept | 34.6 °C | 48 % | 32 km/h | 0.5 mm | Low 11 |
| 3 Sept after | 32.6 °C | 52 % | 32 km/h | 0.5 mm | Moderate 12 |
| 4 Sept after | 35.4 °C | 45 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 12 |
| 5 Sept after | 35.2 °C | 47 % | 19 km/h | 2.8 mm | Very low 3 |
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 4 September 2023 the air beside the fire reached 53 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 38: 2.5 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)
Other fires nearby
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Berau fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 30 August 2023 and 2 September 2023: 4 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 1,606 hectares (16.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Berau (1,617 ha, 0.1 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 35.8 °C, humidity dropped to 44 % and gusts hit 37 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 11, 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
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.