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Kapuas fire, 1 September 2026 Kapuas, Barito Kuala

Out · last detection 15 Oct 2026, 05:59 UTC

The fire started on 1 September 2026 in Kapuas, Indonesia, and satellites saw it burning for 45 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 7,768 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 51th largest in Central Kalimantan since 2016 (of 317 with a page). Number 148 in Indonesia in 2026, of 1031.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Barito Kuala · 2023Kapuas · 2026Kota Banjar Baru · 2026

Burnt area
7,768ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
45days
1 Sept 2026 – 15 Oct 2026
Municipalities hit
2
regencies
Started on
1 Sept
2026
Heat detections
184
in a single hotspot: 123 MW
Danger at start
29
High · FWI index
Average daily power
53MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 1 Sept15 Oct
15 Oct 2026

How it evolved, day by day

1 Sept 2026 · 19 MW · 3 2 Sept 2026 · 1 MW · 1 3 Sept 2026 · 8 MW · 2 5 Sept 2026 · 6 MW · 1 6 Sept 2026 · 4 MW · 1 10 Sept 2026 · 7 MW · 1 11 Sept 2026 · 62 MW · 11 14 Sept 2026 · 27 MW · 5 15 Sept 2026 · 103 MW · 17 17 Sept 2026 · 43 MW · 7 18 Sept 2026 · 161 MW · 6 19 Sept 2026 · 7 MW · 5 20 Sept 2026 · 68 MW · 11 21 Sept 2026 · 194 MW · 16 22 Sept 2026 · 491 MW · 31 23 Sept 2026 · 4 MW · 1 24 Sept 2026 · 11 MW · 3 27 Sept 2026 · 6 MW · 1 28 Sept 2026 · 26 MW · 4 29 Sept 2026 · 22 MW · 3 1 Oct 2026 · 54 MW · 6 2 Oct 2026 · 5 MW · 1 3 Oct 2026 · 54 MW · 5 4 Oct 2026 · 2 MW · 2 5 Oct 2026 · 1 MW · 1 6 Oct 2026 · 47 MW · 9 7 Oct 2026 · 19 MW · 7 8 Oct 2026 · 174 MW · 17 9 Oct 2026 · 0 MW · 0 10 Oct 2026 · 4 MW · 1 12 Oct 2026 · 19 MW · 4 13 Oct 2026 · 0 MW · 0 14 Oct 2026 · 3 MW · 1 15 Oct 2026 · 0 MW · 0
1 Sept 10 Sept 18 Sept 22 Sept 23 Sept 1 Oct 6 Oct 12 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

35°high
42km/h · peak gust
39%lowest humidity

It had gone 33 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 2.5 mm on 25 Oct.

This area had burned before

37% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 877 ha in 2019, 2,680 ha in 2023. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,877 ha that had burned before.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 4.9% of the area of London (78 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
    4,022 ha reached on 1 Sept
    0.2 %
  2. Barito Kuala
    3,802 ha reached on 14 Sept
    1.6 %

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 area16 ha
Residents≈ 2,700

Inside the perimeter there were about 16 hectares of built-up land and about 2,700 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) · Copernicus Climate Change Service (ERA5)

Day High Min. humidity Peak gust Rain Danger (FWI)
1 Sept 33.5 °C 44 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
2 Sept 33.4 °C 45 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
3 Sept 33.8 °C 44 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
4 Sept 33.1 °C 48 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
5 Sept 33.1 °C 47 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
6 Sept 33.6 °C 46 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
7 Sept 32.0 °C 55 % 32 km/h 0.2 mm High 26
8 Sept 32.5 °C 54 % 31 km/h 0.3 mm High 26
9 Sept 33.3 °C 48 % 32 km/h 0.1 mm High 26
10 Sept 33.9 °C 46 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
11 Sept 34.7 °C 42 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
12 Sept 34.4 °C 44 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
13 Sept 34.4 °C 46 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
14 Sept 34.1 °C 42 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
15 Sept 35.0 °C 39 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
16 Sept 32.6 °C 50 % 31 km/h 0.1 mm High 29
17 Sept 31.2 °C 58 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
18 Sept 33.8 °C 42 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
19 Sept 35.3 °C 42 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
20 Sept 34.8 °C 42 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
21 Sept 34.2 °C 45 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
22 Sept 34.7 °C 44 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
23 Sept 35.2 °C 41 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
24 Sept 34.1 °C 49 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
25 Sept 33.2 °C 53 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
26 Sept 33.6 °C 55 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
27 Sept 33.6 °C 50 % 40 km/h 0.4 mm High 30
28 Sept 33.8 °C 49 % 36 km/h 0.2 mm High 29
29 Sept 34.9 °C 42 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
30 Sept 33.5 °C 54 % 37 km/h 0.1 mm High 30
1 Oct 34.7 °C 43 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
2 Oct 34.6 °C 42 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
3 Oct 34.5 °C 44 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
4 Oct 34.9 °C 42 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
5 Oct 34.8 °C 40 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
6 Oct 33.9 °C 44 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
7 Oct 34.0 °C 46 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
8 Oct 34.4 °C 44 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
9 Oct 33.3 °C 46 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
10 Oct 33.5 °C 47 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
11 Oct 34.5 °C 43 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
12 Oct 34.7 °C 45 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
13 Oct 34.5 °C 43 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
14 Oct 35.0 °C 44 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
15 Oct 33.8 °C 50 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
16 Oct after 33.6 °C 53 % 32 km/h 0.6 mm High 23
17 Oct after 34.9 °C 43 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
18 Oct after 33.2 °C 48 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
19 Oct after 33.3 °C 52 % 36 km/h 0.3 mm High 30
20 Oct after 35.2 °C 40 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
21 Oct after 34.6 °C 44 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
22 Oct after 34.6 °C 44 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
23 Oct after 32.5 °C 51 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
24 Oct after 32.5 °C 57 % 31 km/h 0.8 mm Moderate 20
25 Oct after 32.8 °C 60 % 31 km/h 2.5 mm Low 9

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 25 Aug 2026
After · 22 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 22 September 2026 the air beside the fire reached 444 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 188: 13 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak444 µg/m³
Days over the guideline23 days
PM10454 µg/m³
Optical depth5.63
678910111213141516171819202122232425262728
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 · 184Every 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 1 September 2026 to 15 October 2026 (45 days). The perimeter dates it from 8 September 2026 to 8 October 2026.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 7,768 hectares (77.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Kapuas (4,022 ha, 0.2 %); Barito Kuala (3,802 ha, 1.6 %).
Is the Kapuas fire still active?
No fire detections since 15 Oct 2026, 05:59 UTC. A lack of detections is not an official extinction.
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 35.3 °C, humidity dropped to 39 % and gusts hit 42 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 36, 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 · Emergency number and official warnings ›

Satellite cross-check

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

No changes since 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; 2 polygons grouped in this page.
  • Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 8 September 2026 to 8 October 2026. 184 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
  • We have not matched this page with any official record.
  • Weather: Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, in cells of about 25 km.
  • 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.