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Bima fire, 19 October 2019 Bima, Dompu

Out · last measured on 23 Oct 2019

The fire started on 19 October 2019 in Bima, Indonesia, and satellites saw it burning for 5 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 11,000 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the largest fire in West Nusa Tenggara since 2016 (of 29 with a page). Number 27 in Indonesia in 2019, of 418.

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
11,000ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
5days
19 Oct 2019 – 23 Oct 2019
Municipalities hit
2
regencies
Started on
19 Oct
2019
Danger at start
16
Moderate · FWI index

Where it burned

The weather it burned in

23°high
34km/h · peak gust
40%lowest humidity

It had gone 23 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 2.0 mm on 30 Oct.

This area had burned before

11% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 121 ha in 2017, 1,140 ha in 2018.

What happened to each town

  1. Bima where it started
    5,855 ha
    1.4 %
  2. Dompu
    5,209 ha
    2.3 %

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)
19 Oct 23.0 °C 41 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
20 Oct 23.0 °C 40 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 17
21 Oct 23.1 °C 46 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 17
22 Oct 22.6 °C 48 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
23 Oct 22.3 °C 49 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 17
24 Oct after 21.8 °C 53 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
25 Oct after 22.1 °C 49 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 15
26 Oct after 21.6 °C 53 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
27 Oct after 21.9 °C 54 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 17
28 Oct after 21.8 °C 51 % 31 km/h 0.1 mm Moderate 17
29 Oct after 22.3 °C 50 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 17
30 Oct after 22.2 °C 54 % 28 km/h 2.0 mm Low 5

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 12 Oct 2019
After · 30 Oct 2019

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

All fires in Indonesia ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Bima fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 19 October 2019 and 23 October 2019: 5 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 11,000 hectares (110.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Bima (5,855 ha, 1.4 %); Dompu (5,209 ha, 2.3 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 23.1 °C, humidity dropped to 40 % and gusts hit 34 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 18, class Moderate.
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.