How long did the Kubu Raya fire last?

According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 24 July 2026 to 14 September 2026 (53 days). The perimeter dates it from 31 July 2026 to 14 September 2026.

How much area did it burn?

The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 7,059 hectares (70.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire only entered Kubu Raya (7,107 ha, 0.8 %).

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 36.0 °C, humidity dropped to 30 % and gusts hit 33 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 28, 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 · 2026-07-24 → 2026-09-14

Kubu Raya fire, July 2026 Kubu Raya

Out · last detection 14 Sept 2026, 07:01 UTC

The fire started on 24 July 2026 in Kubu Raya, Indonesia, and satellites saw it burning for 53 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 7,059 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 29th largest in West Kalimantan since 2016 (of 268 with a page). Number 167 in Indonesia in 2026, of 1021.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Kubu Raya · 2019 Kubu Raya · 2026 Kubu Raya · 2018 Kubu Raya · 2026

Burnt area: 7,059ha; GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration: 53days; 24 Jul 2026 – 14 Sept 2026
Municipalities hit: 1; regencies
Started on: 24 Jul; 2026
Heat detections: 768; in a single hotspot: 154 MW
Danger at start: 19; Moderate · FWI index
Average daily power: 198MW; detected power per day, on average

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 24 Jul14 Sept

Play back 14 Sept 2026

How it evolved, day by day

24 Jul 6 Aug 13 Aug 21 Aug 29 Aug 5 Sept 14 Sept

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

33km/h · peak gust

30%lowest humidity

It had gone 6 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 10.3 mm on 20 Sept.

This area had burned before

47% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,743 ha in 2018, 2,181 ha in 2019, 430 ha in 2021, 427 ha in 2024. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 3,305 ha that had burned before.

1,854 ha Kubu Raya fire, August 2019 1,897 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire

How big is it?

It burned the equivalent of 4.5% of the area of London (71 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

Kubu Raya where it started

7,107 ha reached on 24 Jul

0.8 %

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 area2.8 ha

Residents≈ 950

Inside the perimeter there were about 2.8 hectares of built-up land and about 950 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)
24 Jul	34.5 °C	39 %	10 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 19
25 Jul	34.5 °C	38 %	12 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 21
26 Jul	35.5 °C	36 %	12 km/h	0.9 mm	Moderate 18
27 Jul	35.2 °C	39 %	9 km/h	0.3 mm	Moderate 18
28 Jul	33.8 °C	52 %	25 km/h	0.2 mm	Moderate 18
29 Jul	32.2 °C	64 %	28 km/h	13.1 mm	Very low 1
30 Jul	32.3 °C	58 %	23 km/h	2.3 mm	Very low 2
31 Jul	33.7 °C	57 %	24 km/h	6.3 mm	Very low 1
1 Aug	33.8 °C	53 %	26 km/h	3.6 mm	Very low 2
2 Aug	34.0 °C	52 %	24 km/h	9.9 mm	Very low 1
3 Aug	34.7 °C	48 %	26 km/h	5.0 mm	Very low 1
4 Aug	35.1 °C	44 %	29 km/h	0.0 mm	Low 8
5 Aug	34.8 °C	39 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	Low 11
6 Aug	34.7 °C	44 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 12
7 Aug	34.9 °C	42 %	25 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 13
8 Aug	35.3 °C	30 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 18
9 Aug	34.7 °C	39 %	22 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 17
10 Aug	35.0 °C	39 %	25 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 18
11 Aug	34.7 °C	42 %	20 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 17
12 Aug	34.5 °C	46 %	25 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 17
13 Aug	33.7 °C	50 %	24 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 16
14 Aug	35.0 °C	45 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 18
15 Aug	33.7 °C	56 %	24 km/h	1.7 mm	Low 7
16 Aug	35.2 °C	46 %	24 km/h	0.2 mm	Moderate 14
17 Aug	34.2 °C	56 %	24 km/h	4.6 mm	Very low 3
18 Aug	35.7 °C	42 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 12
19 Aug	35.0 °C	44 %	22 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 15
20 Aug	34.8 °C	44 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 17
21 Aug	35.4 °C	43 %	25 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 17
22 Aug	34.8 °C	48 %	22 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 17
23 Aug	33.3 °C	56 %	20 km/h	0.4 mm	Moderate 15
24 Aug	34.0 °C	52 %	30 km/h	0.3 mm	Moderate 18
25 Aug	35.5 °C	43 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 19
26 Aug	34.2 °C	52 %	20 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 18
27 Aug	33.4 °C	53 %	24 km/h	0.1 mm	Moderate 19
28 Aug	35.2 °C	31 %	33 km/h	0.0 mm	High 27
29 Aug	35.7 °C	30 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	High 28
30 Aug	36.0 °C	35 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	High 28
31 Aug	35.2 °C	44 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	High 27
1 Sept	35.9 °C	39 %	24 km/h	0.0 mm	High 25
2 Sept	35.0 °C	42 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	High 28
3 Sept	34.7 °C	46 %	25 km/h	0.0 mm	High 25
4 Sept	33.8 °C	53 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	High 22
5 Sept	32.4 °C	57 %	25 km/h	6.4 mm	Very low 3
6 Sept	34.3 °C	48 %	29 km/h	0.1 mm	Moderate 12
7 Sept	31.5 °C	62 %	24 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 12
8 Sept	32.5 °C	61 %	26 km/h	8.2 mm	Very low 2
9 Sept	33.8 °C	50 %	24 km/h	0.0 mm	Low 7
10 Sept	34.6 °C	45 %	23 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 13
11 Sept	34.8 °C	45 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 17
12 Sept	34.8 °C	48 %	19 km/h	0.1 mm	Moderate 15
13 Sept	33.3 °C	58 %	19 km/h	0.6 mm	Moderate 12
14 Sept	34.8 °C	48 %	27 km/h	3.1 mm	Low 6
15 Sept after	30.8 °C	68 %	16 km/h	4.8 mm	Very low 1
16 Sept after	29.6 °C	74 %	15 km/h	3.4 mm	Very low 0
17 Sept after	30.0 °C	72 %	21 km/h	0.3 mm	Very low 1
18 Sept after	32.3 °C	58 %	13 km/h	0.0 mm	Very low 4
19 Sept after	34.7 °C	49 %	19 km/h	0.1 mm	Low 10
20 Sept after	33.1 °C	64 %	23 km/h	10.3 mm	Very low 1

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 17 Jul 2026

After · 21 Sept 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 7 September 2026 the air beside the fire reached 764 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 344: 23 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak764 µg/m³

Days over the guideline63 days

PM10773 µg/m³

Optical depth7.25

WHO 15

222324252627282930311234567891011121314151617181920212223242526272829303112345678910111213141516171819202122

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 · 768Every 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 Kubu Raya fire last?: According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 24 July 2026 to 14 September 2026 (53 days). The perimeter dates it from 31 July 2026 to 14 September 2026.
How much area did it burn?: The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 7,059 hectares (70.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire only entered Kubu Raya (7,107 ha, 0.8 %).
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 36.0 °C, humidity dropped to 30 % and gusts hit 33 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 28, 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

NASA FIRMS ↗
GWIS · Copernicus ↗

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?

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 adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 31 July 2026 to 14 September 2026. 768 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.

Where it burned