How long did the Etheridge fire last?

According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 18 October 2026 to 23 October 2026 (6 days). The perimeter dates it from 18 October 2026 to 21 October 2026.

How much area did it burn?

The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 5,105 hectares (51.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire entered 2 municipalities: Etheridge (4,983 ha, 0.1 %); Croydon (155 ha, 0.0 %).

Is the Etheridge fire still active?

No fire detections since 23 Oct 2026, 04:08 UTC. A lack of detections is not an official extinction.

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 34.8 °C, humidity dropped to 28 % and gusts hit 36 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 28, class High.

Where does this data come from?

From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Australia (geoBoundaries). It is not an official report.

AU · Australia · 2026-10-18 → 2026-10-23

Etheridge fire, 18 October 2026 Etheridge, Croydon

Dying down · last detection 23 Oct 2026, 04:08 UTC

The fire started on 18 October 2026 in Etheridge, Australia, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,105 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 1685th largest in Queensland since 2016 (of 1737 with a page). Number 813 in Australia in 2026, of 848.

Is it still active?

No detections since 23 Oct 2026, 04:08 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: 5,105ha; GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration: 6days; 18 Oct 2026 – 23 Oct 2026
Municipalities hit: 2; local government areas
Started on: 18 Oct; 2026
Heat detections: 103; in a single hotspot: 48 MW
Danger at start: 18; Moderate · FWI index
Energy released: 640MW; sum of detected power

Play back 23 Oct 2026

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 18 Oct23 Oct

How it evolved, day by day

1819202123

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

The weather it burned in

35°high

36km/h · peak gust

28%lowest humidity

It had gone 0 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 8.4 mm on 22 Oct.

This area had burned before

48% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,377 ha in 2023, 901 ha in 2024, 547 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,475 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

Etheridge where it started

4,983 ha reached on 18 Oct

0.1 %
Croydon

155 ha reached on 19 Oct

0.0 %

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)
18 Oct	32.0 °C	38 %	36 km/h	0.6 mm	Moderate 18
19 Oct	33.8 °C	28 %	32 km/h	0.2 mm	High 26
20 Oct	34.8 °C	29 %	33 km/h	0.1 mm	High 28
21 Oct	34.7 °C	30 %	29 km/h	0.0 mm	High 26
22 Oct	31.8 °C	44 %	35 km/h	8.4 mm	Very low 5

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 11 Oct 2026

After · 23 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 21 October 2026 the air beside the fire reached 92 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 44: 3.0 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak92 µg/m³

Days over the guideline2 days

PM1094 µg/m³

Optical depth1.09

WHO 15

161718192021

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 · 103Every 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

Other fires nearby

All fires in Australia ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Etheridge fire last?: According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 18 October 2026 to 23 October 2026 (6 days). The perimeter dates it from 18 October 2026 to 21 October 2026.
How much area did it burn?: The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 5,105 hectares (51.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire entered 2 municipalities: Etheridge (4,983 ha, 0.1 %); Croydon (155 ha, 0.0 %).
Is the Etheridge fire still active?: No fire detections since 23 Oct 2026, 04:08 UTC. A lack of detections is not an official extinction.
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 34.8 °C, humidity dropped to 28 % and gusts hit 36 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 28, class High.
Where does this data come from?: From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Australia (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: 000

Satellite cross-check

NASA FIRMS ↗
GWIS · Copernicus ↗

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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What really happened?

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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 000.

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 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)). 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.