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Paser fire, 22 August 2026 Paser

Out · last detection 1 Sept 2026, 06:03 UTC

The fire started on 22 August 2026 in Paser, Indonesia, and satellites saw it burning for 11 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,069 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 59th largest in East Kalimantan since 2016 (of 98 with a page). Number 636 in Indonesia in 2026, of 1005.

The power measured by the satellite is low (28.0 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.

Burnt area
2,069ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
11days
22 Aug 2026 – 1 Sept 2026
Municipalities hit
1
regencies
Started on
22 Aug
2026
Heat detections
40
in a single hotspot: 28 MW
Danger at start
26
High · FWI index
Energy released
221MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

1 Sept 2026
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 22 Aug1 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

2225262728291

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
34km/h · peak gust
37%lowest humidity

It had gone 18 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

16% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 323 ha in 2019.

What happened to each town

  1. Paser where it started
    2,083 ha reached on 16 Aug
    0.2 %

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)
16 Aug 34.2 °C 42 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
17 Aug 35.0 °C 37 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
18 Aug 34.3 °C 42 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
19 Aug 34.5 °C 41 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
20 Aug 34.5 °C 40 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
21 Aug 33.8 °C 44 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
22 Aug 34.3 °C 44 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
23 Aug 34.8 °C 41 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
24 Aug 34.2 °C 42 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
25 Aug 34.2 °C 41 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
26 Aug 33.5 °C 45 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
27 Aug 34.0 °C 41 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
28 Aug 33.8 °C 41 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
29 Aug 33.9 °C 43 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
30 Aug 34.9 °C 39 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
31 Aug 34.4 °C 44 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
1 Sept 34.0 °C 38 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
2 Sept after 34.8 °C 38 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
3 Sept after 34.8 °C 37 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
4 Sept after 35.3 °C 39 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
5 Sept after 34.6 °C 41 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
6 Sept after 35.2 °C 38 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
7 Sept after 32.8 °C 54 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
8 Sept after 35.2 °C 41 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
9 Sept after 33.0 °C 49 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
10 Sept after 34.5 °C 41 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
11 Sept after 34.2 °C 40 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
12 Sept after 34.5 °C 43 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
13 Sept after 33.7 °C 48 % 35 km/h 0.2 mm High 29
14 Sept after 34.4 °C 41 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
15 Sept after 35.5 °C 39 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
16 Sept after 33.8 °C 43 % 30 km/h 0.4 mm High 29

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 15 Aug 2026
After · 8 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 28 August 2026 the air beside the fire reached 95 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 37: 2.5 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak95 µg/m³
Days over the guideline16 days
PM1098 µg/m³
Optical depth2.12
2021222324252627282930311234
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 · 40Every 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 Paser fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 22 August 2026 and 1 September 2026: 11 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 2,069 hectares (20.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Paser (2,083 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 35.3 °C, humidity dropped to 37 % and gusts hit 34 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

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.