How long did the Buru Selatan fire last?

According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 18 August 2026 to 28 October 2026 (72 days). The perimeter dates it from 18 August 2026 to 21 October 2026.

How much area did it burn?

The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 40,875 hectares (408.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire only entered Buru Selatan (41,089 ha, 9.9 %).

Is the Buru Selatan fire still active?

No fire detections since 28 Oct 2026, 17:39 UTC. A lack of detections is not an official extinction.

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 27.9 °C, humidity dropped to 54 % and gusts hit 45 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 0, class Very low.

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.

ID · Indonesia · 2026-08-18 → 2026-10-28

Buru Selatan fire, August 2026 Buru Selatan

Out · last detection 28 Oct 2026, 17:39 UTC

The fire started on 18 August 2026 in Buru Selatan, Indonesia, and satellites saw it burning for 72 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 40,875 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.

Other fire pages in the same area and on the same dates:

It is the 3th largest in Maluku since 2016 (of 45 with a page). Number 31 in Indonesia in 2026, of 1024.

Compare with…

Burnt area: 40,875ha; GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration: 72days; 18 Aug 2026 – 28 Oct 2026
Municipalities hit: 1; regencies
Started on: 18 Aug; 2026
Heat detections: 1,562; in a single hotspot: 150 MW
Average daily power: 147MW; detected power per day, on average

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 18 Aug28 Oct

Play back 28 Oct 2026

How it evolved, day by day

19 Aug 1 Sept 13 Sept 23 Sept 3 Oct 5 Oct 13 Oct 23 Oct

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

The weather it burned in

28°high

45km/h · peak gust

54%lowest humidity

It had gone one day without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 9.3 mm on 29 Oct.

This area had burned before

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

How big is it?

It burned the equivalent of 26% of the area of London (409 km² against 1,583 km²).

London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).

This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.

What happened to each town

Buru Selatan where it started

41,089 ha reached on 19 Aug

9.9 %

Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the GWIS perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance runs from the point marking the centre of each area to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.

People and buildings inside the perimeter

GHSL 2025

Built-up area3.1 ha

Residents≈ 750

Inside the perimeter there were about 3.1 hectares of built-up land and about 750 residents (GHSL 2025, satellite-based estimate).

This is an estimate on 100 m cells, made from satellite imagery and census data: it does not mean that homes burned or that anyone was harmed. The perimeter also contains land that never burned. The GHSL 2025 epoch is a projection made from 2020 and earlier data.

Source: Global Human Settlement Layer (GHS-BUILT-S and GHS-POP R2023A), European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC), © European Union, CC BY 4.0. Sum inside the perimeter computed by WorldFires. human-settlement.emergency.copernicus.eu

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) · forecast models, provisional until the ERA5 reanalysis arrives

Day	High	Min. humidity	Peak gust	Rain	Danger (FWI)
18 Aug	25.9 °C	56 %	39 km/h	0.1 mm	fwi. 0
19 Aug	25.7 °C	61 %	43 km/h	0.0 mm	fwi. 0
20 Aug	24.7 °C	74 %	37 km/h	2.9 mm	fwi. 0
21 Aug	25.3 °C	67 %	43 km/h	0.2 mm	fwi. 0
22 Aug	25.5 °C	55 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	fwi. 0
23 Aug	25.2 °C	59 %	41 km/h	0.0 mm	fwi. 0
24 Aug	25.2 °C	62 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	fwi. 0
25 Aug	25.3 °C	65 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	fwi. 0
26 Aug	25.3 °C	68 %	41 km/h	0.0 mm	fwi. 0
27 Aug	25.8 °C	66 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	fwi. 0
28 Aug	25.6 °C	69 %	38 km/h	0.2 mm	fwi. 0
29 Aug	25.4 °C	73 %	37 km/h	1.1 mm	fwi. 0
30 Aug	25.4 °C	77 %	37 km/h	2.3 mm	fwi. 0
31 Aug	25.7 °C	69 %	41 km/h	0.3 mm	fwi. 0
1 Sept	25.5 °C	61 %	42 km/h	0.4 mm	fwi. 0
2 Sept	25.7 °C	73 %	42 km/h	0.4 mm	fwi. 0
3 Sept	24.6 °C	76 %	36 km/h	1.0 mm	fwi. 0
4 Sept	26.2 °C	72 %	43 km/h	0.0 mm	fwi. 0
5 Sept	26.0 °C	73 %	39 km/h	0.1 mm	fwi. 0
6 Sept	27.0 °C	68 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	fwi. 0
7 Sept	25.9 °C	56 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	fwi. 0
8 Sept	25.9 °C	66 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	fwi. 0
9 Sept	25.0 °C	69 %	32 km/h	0.2 mm	fwi. 0
10 Sept	25.7 °C	73 %	44 km/h	0.2 mm	fwi. 0
11 Sept	26.1 °C	70 %	38 km/h	0.4 mm	fwi. 0
12 Sept	26.5 °C	63 %	40 km/h	0.1 mm	fwi. 0
13 Sept	26.1 °C	62 %	40 km/h	0.1 mm	fwi. 0
14 Sept	26.9 °C	54 %	41 km/h	0.0 mm	fwi. 0
15 Sept	26.4 °C	59 %	37 km/h	0.4 mm	fwi. 0
16 Sept	26.0 °C	58 %	39 km/h	1.2 mm	fwi. 0
17 Sept	26.2 °C	63 %	41 km/h	0.3 mm	fwi. 0
18 Sept	26.1 °C	60 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	fwi. 0
19 Sept	26.5 °C	68 %	44 km/h	0.0 mm	fwi. 0
20 Sept	26.1 °C	71 %	39 km/h	0.6 mm	fwi. 0
21 Sept	26.5 °C	66 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	fwi. 0
22 Sept	26.5 °C	64 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	fwi. 0
23 Sept	26.9 °C	67 %	40 km/h	1.0 mm	fwi. 0
24 Sept	26.1 °C	71 %	40 km/h	0.1 mm	fwi. 0
25 Sept	26.3 °C	67 %	41 km/h	0.2 mm	fwi. 0
26 Sept	27.3 °C	64 %	42 km/h	0.0 mm	fwi. 0
27 Sept	26.6 °C	70 %	45 km/h	0.1 mm	fwi. 0
28 Sept	26.7 °C	71 %	37 km/h	0.3 mm	fwi. 0
29 Sept	26.7 °C	71 %	35 km/h	0.9 mm	fwi. 0
30 Sept	27.2 °C	61 %	40 km/h	0.1 mm	fwi. 0
1 Oct	26.4 °C	66 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	fwi. 0
2 Oct	26.6 °C	69 %	40 km/h	0.2 mm	fwi. 0
3 Oct	26.5 °C	67 %	41 km/h	0.0 mm	fwi. 0
4 Oct	26.0 °C	71 %	36 km/h	0.2 mm	fwi. 0
5 Oct	25.7 °C	56 %	34 km/h	0.1 mm	fwi. 0
6 Oct	25.5 °C	69 %	35 km/h	0.2 mm	fwi. 0
7 Oct	26.4 °C	69 %	38 km/h	1.3 mm	fwi. 0
8 Oct	25.6 °C	77 %	26 km/h	2.2 mm	fwi. 0
9 Oct	25.9 °C	78 %	28 km/h	1.2 mm	fwi. 0
10 Oct	26.5 °C	77 %	30 km/h	0.5 mm	fwi. 0
11 Oct	27.9 °C	61 %	39 km/h	0.0 mm	fwi. 0
12 Oct	27.4 °C	72 %	38 km/h	0.2 mm	fwi. 0
13 Oct	26.0 °C	77 %	27 km/h	4.6 mm	fwi. 0
14 Oct	26.5 °C	79 %	28 km/h	0.9 mm	fwi. 0
15 Oct	26.8 °C	74 %	33 km/h	3.4 mm	fwi. 0
16 Oct	26.1 °C	77 %	31 km/h	3.8 mm	fwi. 0
17 Oct	26.5 °C	74 %	30 km/h	1.3 mm	fwi. 0
18 Oct	26.7 °C	73 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	fwi. 0
19 Oct	26.7 °C	65 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	fwi. 0
20 Oct	27.0 °C	65 %	30 km/h	2.8 mm	fwi. 0
21 Oct	26.7 °C	70 %	35 km/h	5.2 mm	fwi. 0
22 Oct	26.2 °C	78 %	26 km/h	5.3 mm	fwi. 0
23 Oct	27.3 °C	75 %	31 km/h	1.2 mm	fwi. 0
24 Oct	27.1 °C	76 %	25 km/h	2.6 mm	fwi. 0
25 Oct	26.2 °C	81 %	22 km/h	7.0 mm	fwi. 0
26 Oct	26.1 °C	84 %	21 km/h	4.4 mm	fwi. 0
27 Oct	26.3 °C	79 %	22 km/h	0.6 mm	fwi. 0
28 Oct	27.4 °C	71 %	31 km/h	0.3 mm	fwi. 0
29 Oct after	26.9 °C	70 %	25 km/h	9.3 mm	fwi. 0

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 11 Aug 2026

After · 31 Oct 2026

Before After

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 2 October 2026 the air beside the fire reached 64 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 51: 3.4 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak64 µg/m³

Days over the guideline27 days

PM1068 µg/m³

Optical depth1.39

WHO 15

1617181920212223242526272829303112345678910111213141516171819202122232425262728293012

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 · 1,562Every 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 time	Satellite	FRP (MW)	Lat	Lon

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Buru Selatan fire last?: According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 18 August 2026 to 28 October 2026 (72 days). The perimeter dates it from 18 August 2026 to 21 October 2026.
How much area did it burn?: The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 40,875 hectares (408.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire only entered Buru Selatan (41,089 ha, 9.9 %).
Is the Buru Selatan fire still active?: No fire detections since 28 Oct 2026, 17:39 UTC. A lack of detections is not an official extinction.
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 27.9 °C, humidity dropped to 54 % and gusts hit 45 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 0, class Very low.
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 · Emergency number and official warnings ›

Satellite cross-check

NASA FIRMS ↗
GWIS · Copernicus ↗

History of this page · 1 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.

31 October 2026 Last day with fire: 24 October 2026 → 28 October 2026.

RSS Changes to this page

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?

Dates or duration Place or towns Burned area Name It was not a wildfire Same fire as another page Something else

What really happened?

Your connection to the fire (optional) Email (optional)

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.

How we know this

Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery; 10 polygons grouped in this page.
Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 18 August 2026 to 21 October 2026. 1,562 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
We have not matched this page with any official record.
Weather: ECMWF IFS model, provisional until the ERA5 reanalysis arrives. No FWI: there are fewer than 30 days of data before the start.
Built-up area and population come from the JRC Global Human Settlement Layer (epoch 2025, 100 m cells), summed inside the perimeter: an estimate of what was there, not a damage count.

How we build fire pages: methodology ›

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.

Where it burned