How long did the Paser fire last?

According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 29 July 2026 to 23 October 2026 (87 days). The perimeter dates it from 29 July 2026 to 22 October 2026.

How much area did it burn?

The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 13,048 hectares (130.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire only entered Paser (9,615 ha, 0.9 %).

Is the Paser fire still active?

Yes: satellites detected fire on 23 Oct 2026, 17:52 UTC. Check the emergency service for the official status.

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 36.7 °C, humidity dropped to 31 % and gusts hit 40 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 35, 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 · 2026-07-29 → 2026-10-23

Paser fire, July 2026 Paser

Burning · last detection 23 Oct 2026, 17:52 UTC

The fire started on 29 July 2026 in Paser, Indonesia, and satellites saw it burning for 87 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 13,048 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.

It is the 6th largest in East Kalimantan since 2016 (of 97 with a page). Number 75 in Indonesia in 2026, of 988.

Is it still active?

Satellites detected fire on 23 Oct 2026, 17:52 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: 13,048ha; GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration: 87days; 29 Jul 2026 – 23 Oct 2026
Municipalities hit: 1; regencies
Started on: 29 Jul; 2026
Heat detections: 760; in a single hotspot: 501 MW
Danger at start: 8; Low · FWI index
Energy released: 4.2GW; sum of detected power

Play back 23 Oct 2026

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 29 Jul23 Oct

How it evolved, day by day

29303124567810111213141617181920212223242526272829123456710111213141516181920212223242526272829301234567891011121314151617181920212223

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

The weather it burned in

37°high

40km/h · peak gust

31%lowest humidity

It had gone 0 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

2% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 317 ha in 2020.

What happened to each town

Paser where it started

9,615 ha reached on 29 Jul

0.9 %

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)
29 Jul	31.2 °C	59 %	35 km/h	0.4 mm	Low 8
30 Jul	32.6 °C	49 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 12
31 Jul	32.5 °C	52 %	34 km/h	0.1 mm	Moderate 13
1 Aug	33.7 °C	44 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 16
2 Aug	34.2 °C	39 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 19
3 Aug	33.5 °C	44 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 19
4 Aug	34.0 °C	42 %	24 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 18
5 Aug	33.6 °C	43 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 19
6 Aug	34.0 °C	39 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 21
7 Aug	34.2 °C	38 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 20
8 Aug	33.9 °C	39 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	High 22
9 Aug	33.7 °C	37 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 20
10 Aug	34.1 °C	38 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 21
11 Aug	33.4 °C	42 %	29 km/h	0.0 mm	High 23
12 Aug	33.6 °C	45 %	24 km/h	0.0 mm	High 22
13 Aug	33.8 °C	46 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	High 24
14 Aug	34.6 °C	42 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	High 24
15 Aug	34.0 °C	42 %	33 km/h	0.0 mm	High 25
16 Aug	34.7 °C	37 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	High 23
17 Aug	35.4 °C	35 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	High 27
18 Aug	34.6 °C	38 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	High 28
19 Aug	34.3 °C	42 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	High 26
20 Aug	34.6 °C	39 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	High 27
21 Aug	33.8 °C	41 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	High 29
22 Aug	34.1 °C	43 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	High 27
23 Aug	34.2 °C	42 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	High 28
24 Aug	33.9 °C	42 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	High 28
25 Aug	34.0 °C	40 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	High 30
26 Aug	33.5 °C	43 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	High 29
27 Aug	34.0 °C	37 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	High 30
28 Aug	33.9 °C	39 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	High 30
29 Aug	33.7 °C	42 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	High 30
30 Aug	34.5 °C	40 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	High 29
31 Aug	35.0 °C	40 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	High 29
1 Sept	34.0 °C	37 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	High 30
2 Sept	34.8 °C	37 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	High 31
3 Sept	34.5 °C	37 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	High 29
4 Sept	34.7 °C	40 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	High 32
5 Sept	34.6 °C	40 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	High 32
6 Sept	35.0 °C	38 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	High 32
7 Sept	33.2 °C	48 %	33 km/h	0.0 mm	High 28
8 Sept	34.3 °C	41 %	33 km/h	0.0 mm	High 29
9 Sept	33.1 °C	46 %	38 km/h	0.2 mm	High 30
10 Sept	34.5 °C	37 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	High 30
11 Sept	33.9 °C	41 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	High 30
12 Sept	34.8 °C	40 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	High 30
13 Sept	33.5 °C	46 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	High 30
14 Sept	34.2 °C	39 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	High 32
15 Sept	35.8 °C	36 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	High 32
16 Sept	33.0 °C	44 %	29 km/h	0.6 mm	High 24
17 Sept	33.3 °C	40 %	28 km/h	0.1 mm	High 25
18 Sept	36.2 °C	31 %	35 km/h	0.1 mm	High 34
19 Sept	35.8 °C	34 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	High 35
20 Sept	35.2 °C	37 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	High 34
21 Sept	36.2 °C	34 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	High 35
22 Sept	36.2 °C	34 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	High 34
23 Sept	35.7 °C	40 %	35 km/h	1.6 mm	High 22
24 Sept	33.8 °C	50 %	28 km/h	1.0 mm	Moderate 18
25 Sept	33.1 °C	54 %	21 km/h	3.8 mm	Low 5
26 Sept	35.3 °C	42 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 19
27 Sept	35.6 °C	39 %	33 km/h	0.1 mm	High 26
28 Sept	36.2 °C	36 %	29 km/h	0.0 mm	High 28
29 Sept	35.7 °C	38 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	High 31
30 Sept	36.4 °C	40 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	High 31
1 Oct	36.7 °C	33 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	High 32
2 Oct	36.5 °C	35 %	36 km/h	0.1 mm	High 34
3 Oct	35.5 °C	40 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	High 34
4 Oct	36.0 °C	33 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	High 32
5 Oct	36.2 °C	33 %	39 km/h	0.0 mm	High 35

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 22 Jul 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 21 September 2026 the air beside the fire reached 230 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 116: 7.7 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak230 µg/m³

Days over the guideline67 days

PM10236 µg/m³

Optical depth4.70

WHO 15

27282930311234567891011121314151617181920212223242526272829303112345678910111213141516171819202122232425262728293012

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 · 760Every 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 Paser fire last?: According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 29 July 2026 to 23 October 2026 (87 days). The perimeter dates it from 29 July 2026 to 22 October 2026.
How much area did it burn?: The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 13,048 hectares (130.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire only entered Paser (9,615 ha, 0.9 %).
Is the Paser fire still active?: Yes: satellites detected fire on 23 Oct 2026, 17:52 UTC. Check the emergency service for the official status.
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 36.7 °C, humidity dropped to 31 % and gusts hit 40 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 35, 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.

Report an error

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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.