How long did the Mappi fire last?

According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 17 September 2026 to 19 October 2026 (33 days). The perimeter dates it from 22 September 2026 to 12 October 2026.

How much area did it burn?

The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 27,616 hectares (276.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire only entered Mappi (27,808 ha, 1.1 %).

Is the Mappi fire still active?

No fire detections since 20 Oct 2026, 16:09 UTC. A lack of detections is not an official extinction.

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 34.9 °C, humidity dropped to 37 % and gusts hit 40 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 · 2026-09-17 → 2026-10-19

Mappi fire, 17 September 2026 Mappi

Out · last detection 20 Oct 2026, 16:09 UTC

The fire started on 17 September 2026 in Mappi, Indonesia, and satellites saw it burning for 33 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 27,616 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 5th largest in Papua since 2016 (of 363 with a page). Number 34 in Indonesia in 2026, of 988.

Burnt area: 27,616ha; GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration: 33days; 17 Sept 2026 – 19 Oct 2026
Municipalities hit: 1; regencies
Started on: 17 Sept; 2026
Heat detections: 713; in a single hotspot: 251 MW
Danger at start: 22; High · FWI index
Energy released: 8.1GW; sum of detected power

Play back 20 Oct 2026

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 17 Sept19 Oct

How it evolved, day by day

17181921222324252627282912345678910111213151617181920

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

40km/h · peak gust

37%lowest humidity

It had gone 4 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

What happened to each town

Mappi where it started

27,808 ha reached on 17 Sept

1.1 %

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)
4 Sept	34.9 °C	37 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	High 22
5 Sept	34.5 °C	38 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	High 22
6 Sept	34.3 °C	37 %	25 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 20
7 Sept	33.8 °C	42 %	23 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 21
8 Sept	33.5 °C	44 %	20 km/h	0.1 mm	Moderate 21
9 Sept	33.5 °C	40 %	17 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 21
10 Sept	33.3 °C	41 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	High 25
11 Sept	32.8 °C	37 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	High 27
12 Sept	33.2 °C	37 %	33 km/h	0.0 mm	High 25
13 Sept	30.3 °C	46 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	High 24
14 Sept	31.0 °C	48 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	High 23
15 Sept	30.7 °C	50 %	32 km/h	0.1 mm	High 22
16 Sept	30.1 °C	51 %	32 km/h	0.1 mm	High 22
17 Sept	32.8 °C	42 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	High 24
18 Sept	33.2 °C	40 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	High 25
19 Sept	30.8 °C	50 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	High 26
20 Sept	31.3 °C	49 %	33 km/h	0.0 mm	High 24
21 Sept	32.5 °C	47 %	27 km/h	0.2 mm	High 23
22 Sept	33.2 °C	45 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	High 24
23 Sept	31.0 °C	54 %	29 km/h	0.0 mm	High 22
24 Sept	32.1 °C	50 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	High 22
25 Sept	33.5 °C	44 %	29 km/h	0.0 mm	High 23
26 Sept	33.8 °C	42 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	High 25
27 Sept	34.3 °C	40 %	33 km/h	0.0 mm	High 27
28 Sept	34.2 °C	39 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	High 28
29 Sept	34.2 °C	37 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	High 28
30 Sept	32.4 °C	49 %	24 km/h	1.0 mm	Moderate 17
1 Oct	34.0 °C	40 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	High 28
2 Oct	34.0 °C	43 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	High 28
3 Oct	33.2 °C	45 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	High 26
4 Oct	33.7 °C	44 %	31 km/h	0.1 mm	High 26
5 Oct	34.6 °C	41 %	27 km/h	0.1 mm	High 26

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 10 Sept 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 30 September 2026 the air beside the fire reached 494 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 186: 12 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak494 µg/m³

Days over the guideline13 days

PM10499 µg/m³

Optical depth2.86

WHO 15

202122232425262728293012

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 · 713Every 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 Mappi fire last?: According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 17 September 2026 to 19 October 2026 (33 days). The perimeter dates it from 22 September 2026 to 12 October 2026.
How much area did it burn?: The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 27,616 hectares (276.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire only entered Mappi (27,808 ha, 1.1 %).
Is the Mappi fire still active?: No fire detections since 20 Oct 2026, 16:09 UTC. A lack of detections is not an official extinction.
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 34.9 °C, humidity dropped to 37 % and gusts hit 40 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

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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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