Bima fire, September 2017 Bima
The fire started on 15 September 2017 in Bima, Indonesia, and satellites saw it burning for 7 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,403 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 17th largest in West Nusa Tenggara since 2016 (of 29 with a page). The largest in Indonesia in 2017, of 10.
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
- 2,403ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 7days
- 15 Sept 2017 – 21 Sept 2017
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- regencies
- Started on
- 15 Sept
- 2017
- Danger at start
- 18
- Moderate · FWI index
Where it burned
The weather it burned in
It had gone 8 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.0 mm on 24 Sept.
This area had burned before
28% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 680 ha in 2016.
What happened to each town
-
Bima where it started2,417 ha0.6 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 15 Sept | 27.7 °C | 62 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 18 |
| 16 Sept | 27.8 °C | 65 % | 32 km/h | 0.6 mm | Moderate 14 |
| 17 Sept | 27.8 °C | 60 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 16 |
| 18 Sept | 28.5 °C | 44 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 19 Sept | 27.8 °C | 55 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 20 Sept | 28.0 °C | 54 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 21 Sept | 28.5 °C | 57 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 22 Sept after | 27.8 °C | 63 % | 31 km/h | 0.3 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 23 Sept after | 27.2 °C | 65 % | 30 km/h | 0.3 mm | Moderate 18 |
| 24 Sept after | 27.5 °C | 62 % | 26 km/h | 1.0 mm | Moderate 12 |
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.
Other fires nearby
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Bima fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 15 September 2017 and 21 September 2017: 7 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 2,403 hectares (24.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Bima (2,417 ha, 0.6 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 28.5 °C, humidity dropped to 44 % and gusts hit 33 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 22, 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
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.