How long did the Kapuas fire last?

GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 24 August 2026 and 24 October 2026: 62 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 12,819 hectares (128.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire entered 2 municipalities: Kapuas (8,245 ha, 0.5 %); Barito Selatan (4,646 ha, 0.7 %).

Is the Kapuas fire still active?

No fire detections since 24 Oct 2026, 17:32 UTC. A lack of detections is not an official extinction.

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 35.5 °C, humidity dropped to 31 % and gusts hit 31 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 · 24 Aug 2026 – 24 Oct 2026

Kapuas fire, 24 August 2026 Kapuas, Barito Selatan

Out · last detection 24 Oct 2026, 17:32 UTC

The fire started on 24 August 2026 in Kapuas, Indonesia, and satellites saw it burning for 62 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 12,819 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

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 35th largest in Central Kalimantan since 2016 (of 317 with a page). Number 87 in Indonesia in 2026, of 1031.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Barito Selatan · 2026 Kapuas · 2026 Barito Selatan · 2026 Kapuas · 2019

Burnt area: 12,819ha; GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration: 62days; 24 Aug 2026 – 24 Oct 2026
Municipalities hit: 2; regencies
Started on: 24 Aug; 2026
Heat detections: 1,402; in a single hotspot: 106 MW
Average daily power: 158MW; detected power per day, on average

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 24 Aug24 Oct

Play back 24 Oct 2026

How it evolved, day by day

24 Aug 5 Sept 19 Sept 2 Oct 13 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

36°high

31km/h · peak gust

31%lowest humidity

It had gone 0 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 6.8 mm on 25 Oct.

This area had burned before

12% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,126 ha in 2019. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 1,561 ha that had burned before.

How big is it?

It burned the equivalent of 8.1% of the area of London (128 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

Kapuas where it started

8,245 ha reached on 24 Aug

0.5 %
Barito Selatan

4,646 ha reached on 28 Aug

0.7 %

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 area0.57 ha

Residents≈ 100

Inside the perimeter there were about 0.57 hectares of built-up land and about 100 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)
24 Aug	33.3 °C	53 %	22 km/h	0.9 mm	fwi. 0
25 Aug	33.5 °C	50 %	22 km/h	0.8 mm	fwi. 0
26 Aug	33.7 °C	46 %	19 km/h	0.4 mm	fwi. 0
27 Aug	34.2 °C	42 %	21 km/h	0.3 mm	fwi. 0
28 Aug	34.3 °C	31 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	fwi. 0
29 Aug	34.7 °C	32 %	23 km/h	0.0 mm	fwi. 0
30 Aug	34.0 °C	44 %	16 km/h	0.0 mm	fwi. 0
31 Aug	34.3 °C	47 %	22 km/h	0.0 mm	fwi. 0
1 Sept	34.1 °C	42 %	23 km/h	0.1 mm	fwi. 0
2 Sept	33.1 °C	47 %	19 km/h	0.3 mm	fwi. 0
3 Sept	33.8 °C	48 %	23 km/h	0.8 mm	fwi. 0
4 Sept	33.3 °C	52 %	18 km/h	0.7 mm	fwi. 0
5 Sept	33.6 °C	47 %	20 km/h	0.8 mm	fwi. 0
6 Sept	34.4 °C	50 %	26 km/h	0.7 mm	fwi. 0
7 Sept	32.1 °C	60 %	22 km/h	2.9 mm	fwi. 0
8 Sept	32.4 °C	59 %	28 km/h	6.4 mm	fwi. 0
9 Sept	32.4 °C	60 %	21 km/h	1.4 mm	fwi. 0
10 Sept	33.4 °C	53 %	21 km/h	1.3 mm	fwi. 0
11 Sept	34.8 °C	42 %	20 km/h	0.6 mm	fwi. 0
12 Sept	34.6 °C	46 %	17 km/h	0.8 mm	fwi. 0
13 Sept	34.4 °C	47 %	24 km/h	0.9 mm	fwi. 0
14 Sept	35.5 °C	32 %	16 km/h	0.0 mm	fwi. 0
15 Sept	34.3 °C	45 %	24 km/h	1.5 mm	fwi. 0
16 Sept	32.7 °C	62 %	19 km/h	17.3 mm	fwi. 0
17 Sept	33.3 °C	48 %	20 km/h	1.2 mm	fwi. 0
18 Sept	34.9 °C	41 %	19 km/h	0.2 mm	fwi. 0
19 Sept	35.2 °C	47 %	16 km/h	0.9 mm	fwi. 0
20 Sept	33.7 °C	54 %	20 km/h	10.0 mm	fwi. 0
21 Sept	34.5 °C	47 %	20 km/h	0.6 mm	fwi. 0
22 Sept	34.3 °C	51 %	20 km/h	0.6 mm	fwi. 0
23 Sept	34.7 °C	51 %	26 km/h	4.7 mm	fwi. 0
24 Sept	34.0 °C	52 %	22 km/h	2.2 mm	fwi. 0
25 Sept	32.9 °C	59 %	31 km/h	2.4 mm	fwi. 0
26 Sept	33.7 °C	54 %	18 km/h	1.8 mm	fwi. 0
27 Sept	33.2 °C	57 %	21 km/h	10.8 mm	fwi. 0
28 Sept	32.3 °C	60 %	23 km/h	14.4 mm	fwi. 0
29 Sept	33.8 °C	51 %	20 km/h	0.7 mm	fwi. 0
30 Sept	32.6 °C	62 %	22 km/h	1.4 mm	fwi. 0
1 Oct	32.1 °C	64 %	20 km/h	7.4 mm	fwi. 0
2 Oct	33.3 °C	54 %	24 km/h	1.2 mm	fwi. 0
3 Oct	32.4 °C	60 %	18 km/h	1.2 mm	fwi. 0
4 Oct	32.7 °C	56 %	20 km/h	0.8 mm	fwi. 0
5 Oct	33.4 °C	54 %	16 km/h	0.3 mm	fwi. 0
6 Oct	33.3 °C	52 %	15 km/h	0.6 mm	fwi. 0
7 Oct	33.9 °C	46 %	21 km/h	0.0 mm	fwi. 0
8 Oct	33.8 °C	45 %	18 km/h	0.1 mm	fwi. 0
9 Oct	33.7 °C	50 %	26 km/h	0.8 mm	fwi. 0
10 Oct	32.8 °C	57 %	19 km/h	5.8 mm	fwi. 0
11 Oct	31.3 °C	67 %	23 km/h	10.1 mm	fwi. 0
12 Oct	33.6 °C	49 %	19 km/h	1.4 mm	fwi. 0
13 Oct	33.5 °C	54 %	20 km/h	1.2 mm	fwi. 0
14 Oct	34.1 °C	47 %	15 km/h	0.0 mm	fwi. 0
15 Oct	33.4 °C	56 %	17 km/h	2.8 mm	fwi. 0
16 Oct	32.2 °C	59 %	24 km/h	1.1 mm	fwi. 0
17 Oct	32.7 °C	58 %	19 km/h	10.1 mm	fwi. 0
18 Oct	33.0 °C	58 %	18 km/h	6.3 mm	fwi. 0
19 Oct	32.6 °C	59 %	21 km/h	12.4 mm	fwi. 0
20 Oct	33.1 °C	55 %	17 km/h	3.3 mm	fwi. 0
21 Oct	33.2 °C	58 %	19 km/h	2.0 mm	fwi. 0
22 Oct	33.9 °C	46 %	19 km/h	0.2 mm	fwi. 0
23 Oct	33.7 °C	52 %	26 km/h	0.7 mm	fwi. 0
24 Oct	33.8 °C	52 %	20 km/h	0.8 mm	fwi. 0
25 Oct after	33.1 °C	61 %	38 km/h	6.8 mm	fwi. 0

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 17 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 17 September 2026 the air beside the fire reached 2,436 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 1,117: 74 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak2,436 µg/m³

Days over the guideline42 days

PM102,474 µg/m³

Optical depth10.56

WHO 15

22 Aug31 Aug9 Sept18 Sept27 Sept

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 · 1,402Every 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 Indonesia

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Kapuas fire last?: GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 24 August 2026 and 24 October 2026: 62 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 12,819 hectares (128.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire entered 2 municipalities: Kapuas (8,245 ha, 0.5 %); Barito Selatan (4,646 ha, 0.7 %).
Is the Kapuas fire still active?: No fire detections since 24 Oct 2026, 17:32 UTC. A lack of detections is not an official extinction.
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 35.5 °C, humidity dropped to 31 % and gusts hit 31 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.

27 October 2026 Last day with fire: 23 October 2026 → 24 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.
Dates from the perimeter: the VIIRS detections inside it did not change them. 1,402 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