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Bima fire, 5 September 2026 Bima

Dying down · last detection 23 Oct 2026, 06:29 UTC

The fire started on 5 September 2026 in Bima, Indonesia, and satellites saw it burning for 49 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,028 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

This page is probably a fire complex, not a single fire. GWIS merges into one perimeter the fires that touch over weeks, which in large burning seasons can join dozens of separate fires. The total area is reliable; the origin and dates refer to the whole complex.

It is the 6th largest in West Nusa Tenggara since 2016 (of 29 with a page). Number 280 in Indonesia in 2026, of 988.

Is it still active?

No detections since 23 Oct 2026, 06:29 UTC. That usually means no flame is visible from space any more, although hotspots may remain. Satellites pass a few times a day and cloud or smoke can hide the fire: a lack of detections is not an official extinction. Each country’s emergency service declares a fire contained or out.

Burnt area
4,028ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
49days
5 Sept 2026 – 23 Oct 2026
Municipalities hit
1
regencies
Started on
5 Sept
2026
Heat detections
246
in a single hotspot: 217 MW
Danger at start
15
Moderate · FWI index
Energy released
3.2GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

23 Oct 2026
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 5 Sept23 Oct

How it evolved, day by day

57891112131415161718192021222324252627282930123457891011121314151617181920212223

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

The weather it burned in

32°high
40km/h · peak gust
53%lowest humidity

It had gone 36 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

64% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 451 ha in 2016, 1,013 ha in 2017, 2,732 ha in 2018, 2,563 ha in 2019, 408 ha in 2021, 509 ha in 2023, 1,330 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,589 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Bima where it started
    4,057 ha reached on 5 Sept
    1.0 %

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)
5 Sept 27.8 °C 64 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 15
6 Sept 27.4 °C 67 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 13
7 Sept 27.7 °C 68 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 13
8 Sept 28.1 °C 66 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 13
9 Sept 28.1 °C 68 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 14
10 Sept 28.7 °C 64 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 14
11 Sept 29.7 °C 62 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
12 Sept 30.0 °C 59 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
13 Sept 29.5 °C 54 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
14 Sept 28.2 °C 66 % 37 km/h 0.3 mm Moderate 17
15 Sept 28.1 °C 67 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 15
16 Sept 28.2 °C 65 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
17 Sept 29.4 °C 53 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
18 Sept 29.0 °C 64 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 17
19 Sept 28.4 °C 66 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
20 Sept 29.0 °C 63 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
21 Sept 28.1 °C 68 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
22 Sept 28.9 °C 62 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
23 Sept 28.5 °C 67 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
24 Sept 29.0 °C 67 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 17
25 Sept 30.5 °C 59 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 17
26 Sept 29.4 °C 63 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
27 Sept 30.7 °C 54 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
28 Sept 29.3 °C 65 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
29 Sept 31.5 °C 54 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
30 Sept 29.2 °C 64 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
1 Oct 29.1 °C 65 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
2 Oct 29.0 °C 62 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
3 Oct 29.9 °C 59 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
4 Oct 29.5 °C 60 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
5 Oct 30.1 °C 56 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 29 Aug 2026
After · 23 Oct 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 29 September 2026 the air beside the fire reached 51 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 37: 2.5 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak51 µg/m³
Days over the guideline13 days
PM1054 µg/m³
Optical depth0.64
910111213141516171819202122232425262728293012
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 · 246Every 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 Bima fire last?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 5 September 2026 to 23 October 2026 (49 days). The perimeter dates it from 11 September 2026 to 22 October 2026.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 4,028 hectares (40.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Bima (4,057 ha, 1.0 %).
Is the Bima fire still active?
No fire detections since 23 Oct 2026, 06:29 UTC. A lack of detections is not an official extinction.
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 31.5 °C, humidity dropped to 53 % and gusts hit 40 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 21, 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.