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Berau fire, 29 August 2026 Berau

Out · last detection 10 Sept 2026, 06:37 UTC

The fire started on 29 August 2026 in Berau, Indonesia, and satellites saw it burning for 18 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 1,733 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 80th largest in East Kalimantan since 2016 (of 98 with a page). Number 802 in Indonesia in 2026, of 1005.

Burnt area
1,733ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
18days
29 Aug 2026 – 15 Sept 2026
Municipalities hit
1
regencies
Started on
29 Aug
2026
Heat detections
5
in a single hotspot: 32 MW
Danger at start
7
Low · FWI index
Energy released
52MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

10 Sept 2026
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 29 Aug15 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

2910

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
40km/h · peak gust
33%lowest humidity

It had gone 2 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 21.7 mm on 16 Sept.

This area had burned before

87% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 10 ha in 2017, 746 ha in 2018, 817 ha in 2019, 742 ha in 2023, 658 ha in 2024, 229 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 1,505 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Berau where it started
    1,745 ha reached on 29 Aug
    0.1 %

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)
2 Aug 34.2 °C 46 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Low 7
3 Aug 33.8 °C 48 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Low 8
4 Aug 34.3 °C 48 % 28 km/h 0.3 mm Low 9
5 Aug 34.4 °C 47 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Low 10
6 Aug 34.2 °C 45 % 30 km/h 0.1 mm Moderate 12
7 Aug 34.5 °C 42 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 15
8 Aug 33.8 °C 45 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 15
9 Aug 34.0 °C 44 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 15
10 Aug 34.0 °C 44 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
11 Aug 34.5 °C 43 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 17
12 Aug 35.2 °C 43 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
13 Aug 35.8 °C 42 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
14 Aug 35.8 °C 41 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
15 Aug 36.0 °C 39 % 30 km/h 0.2 mm Moderate 19
16 Aug 35.2 °C 39 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
17 Aug 35.0 °C 40 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
18 Aug 35.8 °C 37 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
19 Aug 36.3 °C 33 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
20 Aug 36.1 °C 37 % 26 km/h 0.4 mm High 23
21 Aug 34.3 °C 45 % 17 km/h 2.2 mm Low 8
22 Aug 35.8 °C 40 % 26 km/h 0.1 mm Moderate 19
23 Aug 36.7 °C 37 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
24 Aug 35.5 °C 45 % 36 km/h 0.5 mm High 26
25 Aug 35.7 °C 39 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
26 Aug 35.2 °C 39 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
27 Aug 35.2 °C 40 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
28 Aug 36.5 °C 33 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
29 Aug 36.5 °C 34 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
30 Aug 36.8 °C 36 % 28 km/h 0.2 mm High 28
31 Aug 37.2 °C 37 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
1 Sept 36.4 °C 37 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
2 Sept 36.0 °C 37 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
3 Sept 35.0 °C 43 % 22 km/h 0.1 mm High 26
4 Sept 35.8 °C 42 % 32 km/h 3.5 mm Low 11
5 Sept 34.9 °C 43 % 33 km/h 8.2 mm Very low 5
6 Sept 34.8 °C 43 % 27 km/h 1.8 mm Low 9
7 Sept 34.2 °C 51 % 23 km/h 4.6 mm Very low 3
8 Sept 34.3 °C 47 % 28 km/h 2.3 mm Very low 5
9 Sept 34.3 °C 45 % 36 km/h 0.3 mm Moderate 14
10 Sept 34.8 °C 44 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 15
11 Sept 33.3 °C 52 % 22 km/h 13.4 mm Very low 1
12 Sept 33.4 °C 49 % 21 km/h 2.0 mm Very low 2
13 Sept 34.9 °C 42 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm Low 9
14 Sept 35.8 °C 38 % 18 km/h 0.2 mm Moderate 12
15 Sept 35.9 °C 40 % 33 km/h 0.2 mm Moderate 16
16 Sept after 27.8 °C 80 % 29 km/h 21.7 mm Very low 0

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 22 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 414 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 274: 18 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak414 µg/m³
Days over the guideline23 days
PM10424 µg/m³
Optical depth3.13
2728293031123456789101112131415161718
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 · 5Every 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 Berau fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 29 August 2026 and 15 September 2026: 18 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 1,733 hectares (17.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Berau (1,745 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 37.2 °C, humidity dropped to 33 % and gusts hit 40 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 30, 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.