How long did the Katingan fire last?

According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 15 August 2026 to 23 October 2026 (70 days). The perimeter dates it from 15 August 2026 to 22 October 2026.

How much area did it burn?

The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 4,757 hectares (47.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire only entered Katingan (2,869 ha, 0.2 %).

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 37.5 °C, humidity dropped to 27 % and gusts hit 35 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 37, 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 · 2026-08-15 → 2026-10-23

Katingan fire, 15 August 2026 Katingan

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

The fire started on 15 August 2026 in Katingan, Indonesia, and satellites saw it burning for 70 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,757 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 86th largest in Central Kalimantan since 2016 (of 310 with a page). Number 245 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: 4,757ha; GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration: 70days; 15 Aug 2026 – 23 Oct 2026
Municipalities hit: 1; regencies
Started on: 15 Aug; 2026
Heat detections: 656; in a single hotspot: 126 MW
Danger at start: 22; High · FWI index
Energy released: 6.4GW; sum of detected power

Play back 23 Oct 2026

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 15 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

38°high

35km/h · peak gust

27%lowest humidity

It had gone 16 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

27% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,262 ha in 2019.

What happened to each town

Katingan where it started

2,869 ha reached on 15 Aug

0.2 %

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)
15 Aug	33.5 °C	49 %	25 km/h	0.0 mm	High 22
16 Aug	35.0 °C	39 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	High 23
17 Aug	34.8 °C	43 %	33 km/h	0.0 mm	High 26
18 Aug	35.7 °C	35 %	24 km/h	0.0 mm	High 25
19 Aug	35.1 °C	40 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	High 27
20 Aug	34.9 °C	42 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	High 29
21 Aug	35.3 °C	36 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	High 28
22 Aug	34.5 °C	44 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	High 28
23 Aug	33.0 °C	50 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	High 24
24 Aug	32.8 °C	51 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	High 23
25 Aug	34.5 °C	39 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	High 26
26 Aug	35.4 °C	36 %	29 km/h	0.0 mm	High 28
27 Aug	34.3 °C	40 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	High 29
28 Aug	34.0 °C	41 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	High 30
29 Aug	34.3 °C	42 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	High 30
30 Aug	35.4 °C	41 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	High 30
31 Aug	34.5 °C	44 %	33 km/h	0.0 mm	High 30
1 Sept	35.0 °C	37 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	High 31
2 Sept	34.8 °C	38 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	High 30
3 Sept	34.4 °C	40 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	High 30
4 Sept	33.3 °C	49 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	High 27
5 Sept	33.8 °C	42 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	High 28
6 Sept	34.5 °C	42 %	33 km/h	0.0 mm	High 29
7 Sept	32.5 °C	56 %	29 km/h	0.0 mm	High 24
8 Sept	33.5 °C	50 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	High 24
9 Sept	34.0 °C	44 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	High 26
10 Sept	35.3 °C	39 %	33 km/h	0.0 mm	High 29
11 Sept	35.5 °C	37 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	High 31
12 Sept	34.8 °C	43 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	High 29
13 Sept	33.8 °C	52 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	High 26
14 Sept	35.5 °C	35 %	29 km/h	0.0 mm	High 30
15 Sept	34.3 °C	43 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	High 31
16 Sept	31.9 °C	56 %	20 km/h	0.2 mm	High 22
17 Sept	30.9 °C	57 %	24 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 21
18 Sept	36.0 °C	31 %	33 km/h	0.0 mm	High 33
19 Sept	36.5 °C	34 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	High 35
20 Sept	37.5 °C	27 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	High 37
21 Sept	35.3 °C	40 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	High 33
22 Sept	36.5 °C	34 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	High 35
23 Sept	35.9 °C	37 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	High 36
24 Sept	35.8 °C	47 %	31 km/h	0.3 mm	High 30
25 Sept	31.7 °C	69 %	19 km/h	9.5 mm	Very low 1
26 Sept	34.9 °C	50 %	31 km/h	0.2 mm	Low 11
27 Sept	33.1 °C	61 %	25 km/h	12.4 mm	Very low 2
28 Sept	34.5 °C	46 %	27 km/h	1.2 mm	Low 8
29 Sept	35.2 °C	47 %	33 km/h	0.4 mm	Moderate 16
30 Sept	34.1 °C	55 %	29 km/h	0.5 mm	Moderate 16
1 Oct	35.0 °C	39 %	33 km/h	0.6 mm	Moderate 20
2 Oct	35.6 °C	42 %	33 km/h	0.0 mm	High 22
3 Oct	34.9 °C	43 %	29 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 21
4 Oct	36.0 °C	36 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	High 24
5 Oct	36.2 °C	37 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	High 25

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 8 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 1,345 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 646: 43 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak1,345 µg/m³

Days over the guideline45 days

PM101,367 µg/m³

Optical depth11.09

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 · 656Every 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 15 August 2026 to 23 October 2026 (70 days). The perimeter dates it from 15 August 2026 to 22 October 2026.
How much area did it burn?: The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 4,757 hectares (47.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire only entered Katingan (2,869 ha, 0.2 %).
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 37.5 °C, humidity dropped to 27 % and gusts hit 35 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 37, 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.

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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 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.