How long did the Katingan fire last?

According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 14 August 2026 to 23 October 2026 (71 days). The perimeter dates it from 14 August 2026 to 22 October 2026.

How much area did it burn?

The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 13,589 hectares (135.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire only entered Katingan (11,791 ha, 0.6 %).

Is the Katingan fire still active?

Yes: satellites detected fire on 23 Oct 2026, 17:52 UTC. Check the emergency service for the official status.

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 36.0 °C, humidity dropped to 32 % and gusts hit 34 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 30, 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.

ID · Indonesia · 2026-08-14 → 2026-10-23

Katingan fire, 14 August 2026 Katingan

Burning · last detection 23 Oct 2026, 17:52 UTC

The fire started on 14 August 2026 in Katingan, Indonesia, and satellites saw it burning for 71 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 13,589 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.

It is the 26th largest in Central Kalimantan since 2016 (of 310 with a page). Number 72 in Indonesia in 2026, of 988.

Is it still active?

Satellites detected fire on 23 Oct 2026, 17:52 UTC. Everything suggests it is still burning. 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: 13,589ha; GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration: 71days; 14 Aug 2026 – 23 Oct 2026
Municipalities hit: 1; regencies
Started on: 14 Aug; 2026
Heat detections: 1,860; in a single hotspot: 185 MW
Danger at start: 16; Moderate · FWI index
Energy released: 11.5GW; sum of detected power

Play back 23 Oct 2026

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 14 Aug23 Oct

How it evolved, day by day

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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

34km/h · peak gust

32%lowest humidity

It had gone 8 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

43% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 5,938 ha in 2019.

What happened to each town

Katingan where it started

11,791 ha reached on 14 Aug

0.6 %

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)
8 Aug	34.0 °C	39 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 16
9 Aug	33.8 °C	40 %	20 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 16
10 Aug	34.5 °C	38 %	21 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 17
11 Aug	34.4 °C	39 %	23 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 18
12 Aug	33.8 °C	45 %	25 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 19
13 Aug	33.8 °C	48 %	23 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 18
14 Aug	34.5 °C	47 %	23 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 19
15 Aug	33.8 °C	47 %	23 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 19
16 Aug	35.0 °C	40 %	18 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 19
17 Aug	35.3 °C	38 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	High 22
18 Aug	35.8 °C	33 %	21 km/h	0.0 mm	High 22
19 Aug	35.4 °C	40 %	23 km/h	0.0 mm	High 24
20 Aug	34.9 °C	42 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	High 25
21 Aug	35.0 °C	39 %	22 km/h	0.0 mm	High 24
22 Aug	34.3 °C	46 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	High 24
23 Aug	33.4 °C	50 %	22 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 21
24 Aug	33.4 °C	49 %	24 km/h	0.0 mm	High 21
25 Aug	34.8 °C	39 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	High 24
26 Aug	35.3 °C	37 %	22 km/h	0.0 mm	High 24
27 Aug	35.2 °C	37 %	25 km/h	0.0 mm	High 26
28 Aug	34.8 °C	38 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	High 26
29 Aug	35.6 °C	32 %	23 km/h	0.0 mm	High 28
30 Aug	35.4 °C	41 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	High 29
31 Aug	35.2 °C	42 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	High 30
1 Sept	35.0 °C	38 %	23 km/h	0.0 mm	High 29
2 Sept	35.2 °C	37 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	High 29
3 Sept	34.4 °C	39 %	24 km/h	0.0 mm	High 28
4 Sept	34.0 °C	49 %	23 km/h	0.0 mm	High 25
5 Sept	34.7 °C	40 %	23 km/h	0.0 mm	High 25
6 Sept	34.3 °C	44 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	High 28
7 Sept	33.0 °C	55 %	25 km/h	0.0 mm	High 22
8 Sept	34.6 °C	42 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	High 24
9 Sept	34.5 °C	42 %	23 km/h	0.0 mm	High 24
10 Sept	35.3 °C	42 %	25 km/h	0.0 mm	High 25
11 Sept	36.0 °C	36 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	High 28
12 Sept	34.6 °C	42 %	18 km/h	0.0 mm	High 27
13 Sept	34.1 °C	51 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	High 25
14 Sept	35.0 °C	38 %	22 km/h	0.0 mm	High 27
15 Sept	33.5 °C	47 %	18 km/h	0.0 mm	High 25
16 Sept	31.2 °C	56 %	17 km/h	0.9 mm	Moderate 14
17 Sept	30.3 °C	59 %	16 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 15
18 Sept	35.0 °C	40 %	19 km/h	0.0 mm	High 23
19 Sept	35.6 °C	39 %	25 km/h	0.0 mm	High 26
20 Sept	35.5 °C	41 %	20 km/h	0.0 mm	High 26
21 Sept	33.3 °C	58 %	21 km/h	6.5 mm	Very low 4
22 Sept	35.1 °C	43 %	24 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 15
23 Sept	35.7 °C	40 %	24 km/h	0.0 mm	High 22
24 Sept	36.0 °C	45 %	27 km/h	3.4 mm	Low 9
25 Sept	31.7 °C	66 %	17 km/h	19.8 mm	Very low 0
26 Sept	35.0 °C	49 %	18 km/h	5.6 mm	Very low 1
27 Sept	31.5 °C	70 %	20 km/h	14.3 mm	Very low 0
28 Sept	34.4 °C	46 %	17 km/h	2.1 mm	Very low 1
29 Sept	35.0 °C	48 %	17 km/h	0.1 mm	Low 6
30 Sept	33.7 °C	58 %	23 km/h	1.8 mm	Very low 3
1 Oct	33.7 °C	46 %	19 km/h	10.1 mm	Very low 1
2 Oct	35.2 °C	45 %	25 km/h	0.0 mm	Low 5
3 Oct	34.8 °C	44 %	20 km/h	0.0 mm	Low 8
4 Oct	35.0 °C	41 %	20 km/h	0.0 mm	Low 10
5 Oct	35.6 °C	38 %	20 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 12

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 7 Aug 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 September 2026 the air beside the fire reached 3,271 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 1,198: 80 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak3,271 µg/m³

Days over the guideline52 days

PM102,868 µg/m³

Optical depth19.56

WHO 15

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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 · 1,860Every 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 Katingan fire last?: According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 14 August 2026 to 23 October 2026 (71 days). The perimeter dates it from 14 August 2026 to 22 October 2026.
How much area did it burn?: The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 13,589 hectares (135.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire only entered Katingan (11,791 ha, 0.6 %).
Is the Katingan fire still active?: Yes: satellites detected fire on 23 Oct 2026, 17:52 UTC. Check the emergency service for the official status.
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 36.0 °C, humidity dropped to 32 % and gusts hit 34 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 30, 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

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.

Report an error

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

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 112.

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.