How long did the Mappi fire last?

According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 18 September 2026 to 15 October 2026 (28 days). The perimeter dates it from 22 September 2026 to 8 October 2026.

How much area did it burn?

The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 13,244 hectares (132.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire only entered Mappi (13,345 ha, 0.5 %).

Is the Mappi fire still active?

No fire detections since 15 Oct 2026, 04:17 UTC. A lack of detections is not an official extinction.

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 34.3 °C, humidity dropped to 37 % and gusts hit 42 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 32, 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 · 2026-09-18 → 2026-10-15

Mappi fire, 18 September 2026 Mappi

Out · last detection 15 Oct 2026, 04:17 UTC

The fire started on 18 September 2026 in Mappi, Indonesia, and satellites saw it burning for 28 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 13,244 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 16th largest in Papua since 2016 (of 363 with a page). Number 74 in Indonesia in 2026, of 988.

Burnt area: 13,244ha; GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration: 28days; 18 Sept 2026 – 15 Oct 2026
Municipalities hit: 1; regencies
Started on: 18 Sept; 2026
Heat detections: 353; in a single hotspot: 111 MW
Danger at start: 26; High · FWI index
Energy released: 3.5GW; sum of detected power

Play back 15 Oct 2026

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 18 Sept15 Oct

How it evolved, day by day

181922232526272829301234567891112131415

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

The weather it burned in

34°high

42km/h · peak gust

37%lowest humidity

It had gone 19 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

1% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 83 ha in 2023.

What happened to each town

Mappi where it started

13,345 ha reached on 18 Sept

0.5 %

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)
18 Sept	33.0 °C	40 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	High 26
19 Sept	31.0 °C	48 %	42 km/h	0.0 mm	High 27
20 Sept	31.8 °C	46 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	High 26
21 Sept	32.8 °C	45 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	High 24
22 Sept	32.8 °C	46 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	High 26
23 Sept	31.0 °C	52 %	33 km/h	0.0 mm	High 24
24 Sept	32.2 °C	49 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	High 23
25 Sept	33.3 °C	44 %	30 km/h	0.2 mm	High 24
26 Sept	33.7 °C	42 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	High 26
27 Sept	34.0 °C	39 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	High 28
28 Sept	34.3 °C	37 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	High 29
29 Sept	34.3 °C	37 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	High 28
30 Sept	33.1 °C	44 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	High 27
1 Oct	33.4 °C	42 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	High 31
2 Oct	34.2 °C	41 %	42 km/h	0.0 mm	High 32
3 Oct	33.2 °C	43 %	33 km/h	0.0 mm	High 29
4 Oct	33.5 °C	44 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	High 29
5 Oct	34.5 °C	41 %	30 km/h	0.2 mm	High 28

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 11 Sept 2026

After · 22 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 409 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 170: 11 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak409 µg/m³

Days over the guideline13 days

PM10414 µg/m³

Optical depth3.23

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 · 353Every 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 18 September 2026 to 15 October 2026 (28 days). The perimeter dates it from 22 September 2026 to 8 October 2026.
How much area did it burn?: The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 13,244 hectares (132.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire only entered Mappi (13,345 ha, 0.5 %).
Is the Mappi fire still active?: No fire detections since 15 Oct 2026, 04:17 UTC. A lack of detections is not an official extinction.
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 34.3 °C, humidity dropped to 37 % and gusts hit 42 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 32, 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.

Where it burned