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ID · Indonesia · –

Merauke fire, 1 September 2026 Merauke

Out · last detection 28 Oct 2026, 16:18 UTC

The fire started on 1 September 2026 in Merauke, Indonesia, and satellites saw it burning for 57 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 16,258 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:

We are reviewing this page: some of its data look inconsistent (the place, the dates or the area), so treat them with caution.

GWIS near-real-time perimeter, from the layer that changed in October 2025: this fire is not compared with fires from earlier years, because since then the GWIS layer gives more and larger perimeters.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Merauke · 2018Merauke · 2023Merauke · 2026Merauke · 2026

Burnt area
16,258ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
57days
1 Sept 2026 – 27 Oct 2026
Municipalities hit
1
regencies
Started on
1 Sept
2026
Heat detections
927
in a single hotspot: 170 MW
Danger at start
31
High · FWI index
Average daily power
134MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 1 Sept27 Oct
28 Oct 2026

How it evolved, day by day

1 Sept 2026 · 34 MW · 9 2 Sept 2026 · 549 MW · 28 3 Sept 2026 · 51 MW · 10 4 Sept 2026 · 42 MW · 18 5 Sept 2026 · 59 MW · 15 6 Sept 2026 · 35 MW · 13 7 Sept 2026 · 116 MW · 18 8 Sept 2026 · 275 MW · 23 9 Sept 2026 · 329 MW · 29 10 Sept 2026 · 456 MW · 65 11 Sept 2026 · 79 MW · 18 12 Sept 2026 · 3 MW · 1 13 Sept 2026 · 26 MW · 9 15 Sept 2026 · 30 MW · 9 16 Sept 2026 · 131 MW · 15 19 Sept 2026 · 10 MW · 6 20 Sept 2026 · 20 MW · 13 21 Sept 2026 · 7 MW · 4 23 Sept 2026 · 94 MW · 10 24 Sept 2026 · 71 MW · 14 25 Sept 2026 · 90 MW · 23 26 Sept 2026 · 486 MW · 63 27 Sept 2026 · 669 MW · 69 28 Sept 2026 · 711 MW · 54 29 Sept 2026 · 123 MW · 12 30 Sept 2026 · 296 MW · 43 1 Oct 2026 · 12 MW · 3 2 Oct 2026 · 57 MW · 13 3 Oct 2026 · 25 MW · 9 4 Oct 2026 · 0 MW · 0 5 Oct 2026 · 374 MW · 40 6 Oct 2026 · 128 MW · 38 7 Oct 2026 · 109 MW · 20 8 Oct 2026 · 144 MW · 31 9 Oct 2026 · 7 MW · 3 10 Oct 2026 · 52 MW · 9 11 Oct 2026 · 137 MW · 22 12 Oct 2026 · 98 MW · 14 13 Oct 2026 · 2 MW · 1 14 Oct 2026 · 0 MW · 0 15 Oct 2026 · 0 MW · 0 16 Oct 2026 · 117 MW · 13 17 Oct 2026 · 36 MW · 11 18 Oct 2026 · 32 MW · 9 19 Oct 2026 · 340 MW · 38 20 Oct 2026 · 0 MW · 0 21 Oct 2026 · 7 MW · 3 22 Oct 2026 · 8 MW · 4 23 Oct 2026 · 25 MW · 8 24 Oct 2026 · 52 MW · 15 25 Oct 2026 · 4 MW · 3 26 Oct 2026 · 16 MW · 7 27 Oct 2026 · 63 MW · 7 28 Oct 2026 · 66 MW · 15
1 Sept 12 Sept 28 Sept 8 Oct 19 Oct

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

The weather it burned in

32°high
54km/h · peak gust
42%lowest humidity

It had gone 44 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

57% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 301 ha in 2016, 617 ha in 2017, 4,299 ha in 2018, 2,468 ha in 2019, 317 ha in 2020, 6,325 ha in 2023, 323 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 9,232 ha that had burned before.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 10% of the area of London (163 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

  1. Merauke where it started
    26,903 ha reached on 1 Sept
    0.6 %

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.

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)
1 Sept 29.5 °C 54 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
2 Sept 30.6 °C 49 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
3 Sept 31.3 °C 52 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
4 Sept 31.3 °C 51 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
5 Sept 29.4 °C 50 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
6 Sept 30.4 °C 52 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
7 Sept 30.3 °C 54 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
8 Sept 30.1 °C 55 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
9 Sept 30.4 °C 50 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
10 Sept 31.8 °C 43 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
11 Sept 30.7 °C 42 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
12 Sept 29.7 °C 50 % 43 km/h 0.2 mm Very high 38
13 Sept 30.2 °C 49 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
14 Sept 28.6 °C 57 % 46 km/h 0.3 mm Very high 38
15 Sept 30.1 °C 51 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
16 Sept 29.1 °C 56 % 40 km/h 0.3 mm High 38
17 Sept 31.1 °C 47 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
18 Sept 29.8 °C 55 % 54 km/h 0.1 mm Very high 42
19 Sept 29.0 °C 58 % 48 km/h 0.1 mm High 37
20 Sept 29.8 °C 53 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
21 Sept 30.0 °C 55 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
22 Sept 29.9 °C 53 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
23 Sept 30.3 °C 54 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
24 Sept 30.5 °C 52 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
25 Sept 31.7 °C 48 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
26 Sept 31.2 °C 48 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
27 Sept 31.6 °C 48 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
28 Sept 32.0 °C 46 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
29 Sept 31.3 °C 46 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
30 Sept 32.0 °C 47 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
1 Oct 31.5 °C 51 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
2 Oct 31.1 °C 47 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
3 Oct 31.0 °C 48 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
4 Oct 31.4 °C 47 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
5 Oct 31.5 °C 48 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
6 Oct 31.8 °C 45 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
7 Oct 31.1 °C 48 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
8 Oct 31.6 °C 43 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
9 Oct 31.3 °C 46 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
10 Oct 31.8 °C 44 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
11 Oct 32.4 °C 44 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
12 Oct 32.2 °C 45 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
13 Oct 30.7 °C 55 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
14 Oct 30.9 °C 56 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
15 Oct 30.7 °C 58 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
16 Oct 32.3 °C 45 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
17 Oct 32.0 °C 44 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
18 Oct 32.0 °C 46 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
19 Oct 31.7 °C 48 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
20 Oct 32.3 °C 44 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
21 Oct 32.5 °C 49 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
22 Oct 31.2 °C 56 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
23 Oct 31.2 °C 58 % 38 km/h 0.1 mm High 32
24 Oct 31.7 °C 56 % 38 km/h 0.1 mm High 31
25 Oct 32.3 °C 54 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
26 Oct 32.1 °C 52 % 40 km/h 0.1 mm High 33
27 Oct 32.0 °C 54 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
28 Oct after 32.3 °C 52 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
29 Oct after 32.2 °C 54 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
30 Oct after 32.0 °C 58 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
31 Oct after 32.8 °C 54 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
1 Nov after 31.5 °C 58 % 37 km/h 0.3 mm High 33
2 Nov after 31.6 °C 58 % 37 km/h 0.5 mm High 32
3 Nov after 31.4 °C 61 % 36 km/h 0.5 mm High 24
4 Nov after 32.2 °C 55 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
5 Nov after 32.8 °C 47 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 33

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 25 Aug 2026
After · 3 Nov 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 September 2026 the air beside the fire reached 529 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 140: 9.3 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak529 µg/m³
Days over the guideline31 days
PM10540 µg/m³
Optical depth3.82
30 Aug6 Sept13 Sept20 Sept27 Sept
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 · 927Every 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 Merauke fire last?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 1 September 2026 to 27 October 2026 (57 days). The perimeter dates it from 1 September 2026 to 20 October 2026.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 16,258 hectares (162.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Merauke (26,903 ha, 0.6 %).
Is the Merauke fire still active?
No fire detections since 28 Oct 2026, 16:18 UTC. A lack of detections is not an official extinction.
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 32.5 °C, humidity dropped to 42 % and gusts hit 54 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 42, class Very 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

History of this page · 2 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
  1. Area: 26,712 → 16,258 ha.
  2. Last day with fire: 24 October 2026 → 27 October 2026.

RSS Changes to this page With cross-checks and a citable version

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?

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; 2 polygons grouped in this page.
  • Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 1 September 2026 to 20 October 2026. 927 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.

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.