How long did the Luwu Timur fire last?

According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 23 September 2026 to 2 November 2026 (41 days). The perimeter dates it from 23 September 2026 to 30 October 2026.

How much area did it burn?

The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 14,993 hectares (149.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire entered 2 municipalities: Luwu Timur (10,911 ha, 1.6 %); Konawe (4,185 ha, 0.8 %).

Is the Luwu Timur fire still active?

Yes: satellites detected fire on 2 Nov 2026, 17:09 UTC. Check the emergency service for the official status.

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 33.3 °C, humidity dropped to 23 % and gusts hit 35 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 24, 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 · 2026-09-23 → 2026-11-02

Luwu Timur fire, 23 September 2026 Luwu Timur, Konawe

Burning · last detection 2 Nov 2026, 17:09 UTC

The fire started on 23 September 2026 in Luwu Timur, Indonesia, and satellites saw it burning for 41 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 14,993 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the largest fire in South Sulawesi since 2016 (of 20 with a page). Number 77 in Indonesia in 2026, of 1025.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Luwu Timur · 2019 Konawe · 2026 Luwu Timur · 2019 Luwu Timur · 2026

Is it still active?

Satellites detected fire on 2 Nov 2026, 17:09 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: 14,993ha; GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration: 41days; 23 Sept 2026 – 2 Nov 2026
Municipalities hit: 2; regencies
Started on: 23 Sept; 2026
Heat detections: 424; in a single hotspot: 79 MW
Danger at start: 4; Very low · FWI index
Average daily power: 70MW; detected power per day, on average

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 23 Sept2 Nov

Play back 2 Nov 2026

How it evolved, day by day

2 Oct 7 Oct 9 Oct 12 Oct 17 Oct 22 Oct 27 Oct 1 Nov

Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.

The weather it burned in

33°high

35km/h · peak gust

23%lowest humidity

It had gone 0 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 3.9 mm on 2 Nov.

This area had burned before

0% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 54 ha in 2019. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 42 ha that had burned before.

12 ha Luwu Timur fire, October 2019 2,494 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire

How big is it?

It burned the equivalent of 9.5% of the area of London (150 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

Luwu Timur where it started

10,911 ha reached on 2 Oct

1.6 %
Konawe

4,185 ha reached on 2 Oct

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 area2.3 ha

Residents≈ 200

Inside the perimeter there were about 2.3 hectares of built-up land and about 200 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)
23 Sept	30.1 °C	51 %	20 km/h	2.0 mm	Very low 4
24 Sept	30.0 °C	49 %	23 km/h	1.9 mm	Very low 5
25 Sept	30.2 °C	53 %	19 km/h	3.0 mm	Very low 3
26 Sept	30.5 °C	48 %	22 km/h	1.5 mm	Very low 5
27 Sept	31.0 °C	41 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 14
28 Sept	30.9 °C	39 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 16
29 Sept	31.3 °C	35 %	25 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 17
30 Sept	31.3 °C	35 %	23 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 18
1 Oct	31.3 °C	29 %	21 km/h	0.1 mm	Moderate 19
2 Oct	31.6 °C	31 %	23 km/h	0.1 mm	High 22
3 Oct	31.3 °C	31 %	22 km/h	0.0 mm	High 22
4 Oct	31.5 °C	37 %	24 km/h	1.8 mm	Low 10
5 Oct	32.1 °C	26 %	26 km/h	0.2 mm	Moderate 21
6 Oct	31.8 °C	33 %	23 km/h	0.2 mm	Moderate 20
7 Oct	31.8 °C	32 %	25 km/h	0.3 mm	Moderate 21
8 Oct	30.5 °C	48 %	33 km/h	0.8 mm	Moderate 16
9 Oct	29.8 °C	48 %	29 km/h	2.2 mm	Low 7
10 Oct	30.1 °C	49 %	23 km/h	5.5 mm	Very low 2
11 Oct	30.4 °C	53 %	23 km/h	3.6 mm	Very low 2
12 Oct	31.6 °C	36 %	29 km/h	0.0 mm	Low 11
13 Oct	31.1 °C	34 %	29 km/h	0.2 mm	Moderate 16
14 Oct	31.2 °C	41 %	27 km/h	1.1 mm	Low 11
15 Oct	32.1 °C	32 %	26 km/h	0.2 mm	Moderate 16
16 Oct	31.8 °C	29 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 19
17 Oct	30.4 °C	45 %	35 km/h	0.8 mm	Moderate 15
18 Oct	32.0 °C	38 %	22 km/h	0.6 mm	Moderate 15
19 Oct	33.3 °C	26 %	20 km/h	0.1 mm	Moderate 21
20 Oct	33.3 °C	23 %	24 km/h	0.0 mm	High 24
21 Oct	31.5 °C	28 %	24 km/h	1.4 mm	Moderate 16
22 Oct	31.3 °C	41 %	31 km/h	2.3 mm	Low 9
23 Oct	31.0 °C	46 %	23 km/h	5.8 mm	Very low 3
24 Oct	31.6 °C	40 %	25 km/h	0.9 mm	Low 8
25 Oct	31.4 °C	44 %	31 km/h	1.2 mm	Low 11
26 Oct	31.3 °C	53 %	24 km/h	3.4 mm	Very low 3
27 Oct	31.3 °C	45 %	23 km/h	3.1 mm	Very low 3
28 Oct	32.1 °C	35 %	22 km/h	0.5 mm	Low 11
29 Oct	32.5 °C	33 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 17
30 Oct	32.0 °C	35 %	28 km/h	1.0 mm	Moderate 15
31 Oct	30.6 °C	47 %	28 km/h	13.5 mm	Very low 1
1 Nov	31.3 °C	41 %	28 km/h	1.8 mm	Very low 2
2 Nov	30.3 °C	47 %	30 km/h	3.9 mm	Very low 1

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 16 Sept 2026

After · 2 Nov 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 4 October 2026 the air beside the fire reached 65 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 48: 3.2 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak65 µg/m³

Days over the guideline15 days

PM1070 µg/m³

Optical depth1.34

WHO 15

212223242526272829301234567

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 · 424Every 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 Luwu Timur fire last?: According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 23 September 2026 to 2 November 2026 (41 days). The perimeter dates it from 23 September 2026 to 30 October 2026.
How much area did it burn?: The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 14,993 hectares (149.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire entered 2 municipalities: Luwu Timur (10,911 ha, 1.6 %); Konawe (4,185 ha, 0.8 %).
Is the Luwu Timur fire still active?: Yes: satellites detected fire on 2 Nov 2026, 17:09 UTC. Check the emergency service for the official status.
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 33.3 °C, humidity dropped to 23 % and gusts hit 35 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 24, 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 · 1 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.

28 October 2026 Area: 12,982 → 14,727 ha.

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; 4 polygons grouped in this page.
Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 23 September 2026 to 30 October 2026. 424 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.
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.