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Melawi fire, 5 August 2026 Melawi, Sintang

Out · last detection 3 Sept 2026, 18:09 UTC

The fire started on 5 August 2026 in Melawi, Indonesia, and satellites saw it burning for 30 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 10,779 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 13th largest in West Kalimantan since 2016 (of 267 with a page). Number 93 in Indonesia in 2026, of 1005.

Burnt area
10,779ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
30days
5 Aug 2026 – 3 Sept 2026
Municipalities hit
2
regencies
Started on
5 Aug
2026
Heat detections
1,088
in a single hotspot: 73 MW
Danger at start
12
Moderate · FWI index
Energy released
8.3GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

3 Sept 2026
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 5 Aug3 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

5678910111213141516171819202122232425262728293031123

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
29km/h · peak gust
28%lowest humidity

It had gone 0 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 5.7 mm on 15 Sept.

This area had burned before

34% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 362 ha in 2018, 5,968 ha in 2019, 393 ha in 2023. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 3,702 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Melawi where it started
    9,702 ha reached on 2 Aug
    1.0 %
  2. Sintang
    1,149 ha reached on 7 Aug
    0.0 %

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)
2 Aug 35.7 °C 41 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 12
3 Aug 35.9 °C 40 % 19 km/h 0.1 mm Moderate 13
4 Aug 36.5 °C 36 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
5 Aug 36.2 °C 33 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
6 Aug 36.7 °C 34 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
7 Aug 36.4 °C 37 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
8 Aug 36.4 °C 29 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
9 Aug 35.7 °C 36 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
10 Aug 35.7 °C 36 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
11 Aug 36.0 °C 36 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
12 Aug 35.9 °C 38 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
13 Aug 35.0 °C 43 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
14 Aug 35.5 °C 43 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm High 21
15 Aug 33.7 °C 54 % 19 km/h 2.3 mm Low 6
16 Aug 35.7 °C 40 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 17
17 Aug 35.5 °C 41 % 20 km/h 0.6 mm Moderate 18
18 Aug 36.6 °C 37 % 22 km/h 0.2 mm High 22
19 Aug 36.9 °C 35 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
20 Aug 36.3 °C 39 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
21 Aug 36.2 °C 38 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
22 Aug 36.2 °C 41 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
23 Aug 35.5 °C 46 % 19 km/h 0.5 mm High 23
24 Aug 35.0 °C 46 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
25 Aug 35.8 °C 40 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
26 Aug 36.5 °C 36 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
27 Aug 35.7 °C 39 % 22 km/h 0.5 mm High 26
28 Aug 35.8 °C 29 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
29 Aug 36.8 °C 28 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
30 Aug 37.5 °C 31 % 18 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
31 Aug 37.5 °C 32 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
1 Sept 37.2 °C 34 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
2 Sept 36.1 °C 36 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
3 Sept 36.0 °C 37 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
4 Sept after 33.8 °C 51 % 19 km/h 0.5 mm High 23
5 Sept after 32.7 °C 53 % 23 km/h 4.8 mm Very low 4
6 Sept after 35.0 °C 43 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 15
7 Sept after 32.5 °C 57 % 21 km/h 0.5 mm Moderate 16
8 Sept after 29.2 °C 80 % 16 km/h 21.9 mm Very low 0
9 Sept after 33.6 °C 48 % 22 km/h 3.7 mm Very low 2
10 Sept after 35.2 °C 41 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm Low 10
11 Sept after 33.9 °C 49 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 13
12 Sept after 35.5 °C 42 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 15
13 Sept after 36.2 °C 42 % 25 km/h 0.6 mm Moderate 16
14 Sept after 35.8 °C 43 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 17
15 Sept after 28.0 °C 75 % 13 km/h 5.7 mm Very low 0

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 29 Jul 2026
After · 10 Sept 2026

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 August 2026 the air beside the fire reached 440 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 255: 17 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak440 µg/m³
Days over the guideline35 days
PM10448 µg/m³
Optical depth4.98
345678910111213141516171819202122232425262728293031123456
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 · 1,088Every 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 timeSatelliteFRP (MW)LatLon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Indonesia ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Melawi fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 5 August 2026 and 3 September 2026: 30 days between the first and last heat detection of the perimeter.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 10,779 hectares (107.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Melawi (9,702 ha, 1.0 %); Sintang (1,149 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 37.5 °C, humidity dropped to 28 % and gusts hit 29 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 34, 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

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
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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.