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Kapuas fire, 25 August 2026 Kapuas

Out · last detection 24 Oct 2026, 18:15 UTC

The fire started on 25 August 2026 in Kapuas, Indonesia, and satellites saw it burning for 61 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 23,187 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 21th largest in Central Kalimantan since 2016 (of 317 with a page). Number 53 in Indonesia in 2026, of 1031.

Compare with…

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

Burnt area
23,187ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
61days
25 Aug 2026 – 24 Oct 2026
Municipalities hit
1
regencies
Started on
25 Aug
2026
Heat detections
1,144
in a single hotspot: 48 MW
Average daily power
75MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 25 Aug24 Oct
24 Oct 2026

How it evolved, day by day

25 Aug 2026 · 1 MW · 1 26 Aug 2026 · 31 MW · 6 27 Aug 2026 · 7 MW · 1 28 Aug 2026 · 153 MW · 37 29 Aug 2026 · 68 MW · 27 30 Aug 2026 · 28 MW · 15 31 Aug 2026 · 34 MW · 14 1 Sept 2026 · 145 MW · 42 2 Sept 2026 · 33 MW · 13 3 Sept 2026 · 62 MW · 25 4 Sept 2026 · 74 MW · 31 5 Sept 2026 · 25 MW · 12 6 Sept 2026 · 4 MW · 1 7 Sept 2026 · 6 MW · 6 8 Sept 2026 · 17 MW · 11 10 Sept 2026 · 31 MW · 23 11 Sept 2026 · 369 MW · 53 12 Sept 2026 · 4 MW · 2 13 Sept 2026 · 23 MW · 12 14 Sept 2026 · 192 MW · 87 15 Sept 2026 · 97 MW · 46 18 Sept 2026 · 62 MW · 30 19 Sept 2026 · 132 MW · 46 20 Sept 2026 · 118 MW · 59 21 Sept 2026 · 26 MW · 11 22 Sept 2026 · 52 MW · 9 23 Sept 2026 · 4 MW · 3 24 Sept 2026 · 444 MW · 78 25 Sept 2026 · 60 MW · 34 26 Sept 2026 · 115 MW · 52 28 Sept 2026 · 48 MW · 20 29 Sept 2026 · 24 MW · 12 1 Oct 2026 · 105 MW · 32 2 Oct 2026 · 108 MW · 25 3 Oct 2026 · 44 MW · 8 4 Oct 2026 · 9 MW · 6 5 Oct 2026 · 84 MW · 40 6 Oct 2026 · 77 MW · 48 7 Oct 2026 · 45 MW · 23 8 Oct 2026 · 409 MW · 54 9 Oct 2026 · 0 MW · 0 10 Oct 2026 · 23 MW · 10 11 Oct 2026 · 99 MW · 42 12 Oct 2026 · 76 MW · 14 13 Oct 2026 · 3 MW · 2 14 Oct 2026 · 6 MW · 4 17 Oct 2026 · 1 MW · 1 18 Oct 2026 · 0 MW · 0 20 Oct 2026 · 4 MW · 3 22 Oct 2026 · 29 MW · 13 24 Oct 2026 · 0 MW · 0
25 Aug 2 Sept 11 Sept 21 Sept 24 Sept 1 Oct 9 Oct 20 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 one day 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

11% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,110 ha in 2018, 2,815 ha in 2019, 411 ha in 2023. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,479 ha that had burned before.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 15% of the area of London (232 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

  1. Kapuas where it started
    23,340 ha reached on 25 Aug
    1.3 %

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 area14 ha
Residents≈ 2,300

Inside the perimeter there were about 14 hectares of built-up land and about 2,300 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)
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 · 18 Aug 2026
After · 31 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 31 August 2026 the air beside the fire reached 2,451 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 949: 63 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak2,451 µg/m³
Days over the guideline41 days
PM102,488 µg/m³
Optical depth10.66
23242526272829303112345678910111213141516171819202122232425262728293012
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 · 1,144Every 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 Kapuas fire last?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 25 August 2026 to 24 October 2026 (61 days). The perimeter dates it from 25 August 2026 to 17 October 2026.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 23,187 hectares (231.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Kapuas (23,340 ha, 1.3 %).
Is the Kapuas fire still active?
No fire detections since 24 Oct 2026, 18:15 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

History of this page · 1 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
  1. Last day with fire: 22 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?

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; 6 polygons grouped in this page.
  • Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 25 August 2026 to 17 October 2026. 1,144 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.