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Buru fire, 5 August 2026 Buru

Out · last detection 23 Aug 2026, 16:35 UTC

The fire started on 5 August 2026 in Buru, Indonesia, and satellites saw it burning for 21 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,896 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 18th largest in Maluku since 2016 (of 42 with a page). Number 420 in Indonesia in 2026, of 988.

The power measured by the satellite is low (14.1 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.

Burnt area
2,896ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
21days
5 Aug 2026 – 25 Aug 2026
Municipalities hit
1
regencies
Started on
5 Aug
2026
Heat detections
62
in a single hotspot: 14 MW
Danger at start
13
Moderate · FWI index
Energy released
276MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

23 Aug 2026
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 5 Aug25 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

589101112131416181920212223

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

The weather it burned in

29°high
45km/h · peak gust
54%lowest humidity

It had gone 9 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

39% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 632 ha in 2019, 781 ha in 2023. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 1,116 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Buru where it started
    2,915 ha reached on 5 Aug
    0.6 %

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)
5 Aug 28.0 °C 61 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 13
6 Aug 27.9 °C 57 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 14
7 Aug 28.1 °C 57 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 14
8 Aug 28.4 °C 61 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 15
9 Aug 28.2 °C 64 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
10 Aug 28.0 °C 67 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
11 Aug 28.8 °C 63 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
12 Aug 29.2 °C 60 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
13 Aug 28.6 °C 59 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
14 Aug 28.5 °C 64 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 17
15 Aug 28.5 °C 65 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
16 Aug 28.5 °C 67 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
17 Aug 28.5 °C 62 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
18 Aug 28.3 °C 59 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
19 Aug 28.2 °C 63 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
20 Aug 27.8 °C 65 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
21 Aug 28.2 °C 57 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
22 Aug 28.0 °C 56 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 21
23 Aug 28.0 °C 56 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
24 Aug 28.2 °C 58 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
25 Aug 28.3 °C 54 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 21
26 Aug after 27.8 °C 66 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
27 Aug after 28.3 °C 65 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
28 Aug after 28.2 °C 67 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
29 Aug after 27.9 °C 70 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
30 Aug after 28.1 °C 69 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
31 Aug after 28.3 °C 61 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
1 Sept after 28.2 °C 68 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
2 Sept after 28.4 °C 67 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
3 Sept after 28.5 °C 65 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
4 Sept after 29.7 °C 59 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
5 Sept after 29.4 °C 64 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
6 Sept after 29.4 °C 56 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
7 Sept after 29.4 °C 58 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
8 Sept after 29.7 °C 55 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
9 Sept after 29.3 °C 58 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
10 Sept after 28.8 °C 60 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 24

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 29 Jul 2026
After · 1 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 25 August 2026 the air beside the fire reached 30 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 21: 1.4 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak30 µg/m³
Days over the guideline4 days
PM1036 µg/m³
Optical depth0.55
8910111213141516171819202122232425262728
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 · 62Every 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 Buru fire last?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 5 August 2026 to 25 August 2026 (21 days). The perimeter dates it from 10 August 2026 to 25 August 2026.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 2,896 hectares (29.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Buru (2,915 ha, 0.6 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 29.2 °C, humidity dropped to 54 % and gusts hit 45 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.

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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.