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Berau fire, 10 August 2026 Berau

Out · last detection 14 Sept 2026, 18:02 UTC

The fire started on 10 August 2026 in Berau, Indonesia, and satellites saw it burning for 37 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,551 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 26th largest in East Kalimantan since 2016 (of 97 with a page). Number 328 in Indonesia in 2026, of 988.

Burnt area
3,551ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
37days
10 Aug 2026 – 15 Sept 2026
Municipalities hit
1
regencies
Started on
10 Aug
2026
Heat detections
270
in a single hotspot: 62 MW
Danger at start
15
Moderate · FWI index
Energy released
2.0GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

14 Sept 2026
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 10 Aug15 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

101112131415161718192021222326272829303112345678910121314

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

The weather it burned in

37°high
50km/h · peak gust
33%lowest humidity

It had gone 11 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 3.8 mm on 23 Sept.

This area had burned before

47% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 368 ha in 2017, 218 ha in 2018, 51 ha in 2020, 575 ha in 2023, 219 ha in 2024, 893 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 1,657 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Berau where it started
    3,574 ha reached on 10 Aug
    0.2 %

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)
10 Aug 33.2 °C 43 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 15
11 Aug 33.9 °C 45 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 14
12 Aug 34.5 °C 45 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
13 Aug 34.8 °C 45 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
14 Aug 34.7 °C 44 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 17
15 Aug 34.4 °C 44 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 17
16 Aug 34.8 °C 40 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
17 Aug 34.6 °C 41 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
18 Aug 34.9 °C 40 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
19 Aug 35.1 °C 37 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
20 Aug 34.8 °C 41 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 21
21 Aug 34.2 °C 45 % 22 km/h 0.3 mm Moderate 20
22 Aug 34.3 °C 44 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
23 Aug 35.8 °C 39 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
24 Aug 33.8 °C 51 % 38 km/h 0.7 mm Moderate 19
25 Aug 35.0 °C 39 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
26 Aug 34.8 °C 40 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
27 Aug 34.8 °C 39 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
28 Aug 35.5 °C 36 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
29 Aug 35.3 °C 36 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
30 Aug 35.8 °C 36 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
31 Aug 36.5 °C 34 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
1 Sept 35.4 °C 37 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
2 Sept 35.2 °C 37 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
3 Sept 34.8 °C 42 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
4 Sept 34.8 °C 43 % 30 km/h 0.6 mm High 24
5 Sept 34.1 °C 47 % 36 km/h 1.1 mm Moderate 20
6 Sept 35.0 °C 40 % 27 km/h 2.5 mm Moderate 12
7 Sept 34.0 °C 50 % 31 km/h 0.5 mm Moderate 18
8 Sept 34.9 °C 40 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
9 Sept 33.2 °C 51 % 38 km/h 1.3 mm Moderate 16
10 Sept 35.3 °C 39 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
11 Sept 33.2 °C 51 % 35 km/h 1.2 mm Moderate 17
12 Sept 34.9 °C 42 % 17 km/h 0.9 mm Moderate 17
13 Sept 37.0 °C 33 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
14 Sept 36.8 °C 34 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
15 Sept 35.5 °C 40 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
16 Sept after 28.0 °C 69 % 24 km/h 9.1 mm Very low 1
17 Sept after 32.7 °C 47 % 50 km/h 0.4 mm Moderate 13
18 Sept after 33.6 °C 42 % 30 km/h 1.9 mm Moderate 11
19 Sept after 35.0 °C 43 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
20 Sept after 34.7 °C 43 % 23 km/h 1.4 mm Moderate 14
21 Sept after 34.5 °C 46 % 27 km/h 1.8 mm Low 10
22 Sept after 35.0 °C 46 % 19 km/h 0.8 mm Moderate 14
23 Sept after 34.9 °C 40 % 19 km/h 3.8 mm Low 6

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 3 Aug 2026
After · 22 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 6 September 2026 the air beside the fire reached 216 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 119: 7.9 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak216 µg/m³
Days over the guideline36 days
PM10222 µg/m³
Optical depth2.40
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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 · 270Every 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 Berau fire last?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 10 August 2026 to 15 September 2026 (37 days). The perimeter dates it from 16 August 2026 to 15 September 2026.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 3,551 hectares (35.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Berau (3,574 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 37.0 °C, humidity dropped to 33 % and gusts hit 50 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 32, 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
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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.