How long did the Paser fire last?

According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 21 August 2026 to 24 October 2026 (65 days). The perimeter dates it from 22 August 2026 to 23 October 2026.

How much area did it burn?

The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 22,072 hectares (220.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire entered 3 municipalities: Paser (22,017 ha, 2.1 %); Balangan (109 ha, 0.1 %); Kota Baru (99 ha, 0.0 %).

Is the Paser fire still active?

Yes: satellites detected fire on 24 Oct 2026, 17:32 UTC. Check the emergency service for the official status.

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 35.8 °C, humidity dropped to 33 % and gusts hit 49 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 0, class Very low.

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 · 2026-08-21 → 2026-10-24

Paser fire, 21 August 2026 Paser, Balangan, Kota Baru

Burning · last detection 24 Oct 2026, 17:32 UTC

The fire started on 21 August 2026 in Paser, Indonesia, and satellites saw it burning for 65 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 22,072 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.

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:

It is the 2th largest in East Kalimantan since 2016 (of 98 with a page). Number 56 in Indonesia in 2026, of 1004.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Paser · 2026 Paser · 2026 Paser · 2026 Kota Baru · 2026

Is it still active?

Satellites detected fire on 24 Oct 2026, 17:32 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: 22,072ha; GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration: 65days; 21 Aug 2026 – 24 Oct 2026
Municipalities hit: 3; regencies
Started on: 21 Aug; 2026
Heat detections: 965; in a single hotspot: 201 MW
Average daily power: 88MW; detected power per day, on average

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 21 Aug24 Oct

Play back 24 Oct 2026

How it evolved, day by day

21 Aug 3 Sept 12 Sept 24 Sept 4 Oct 8 Oct 13 Oct 22 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

36°high

49km/h · peak gust

33%lowest humidity

It had gone 6 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 2.8 mm on 25 Oct.

This area had burned before

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

How big is it?

It burned the equivalent of 14% of the area of London (221 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

Paser where it started

22,017 ha reached on 21 Aug

2.1 %
Balangan

109 ha reached on 18 Oct

0.1 %
Kota Baru

99 ha reached on 18 Oct

0.0 %

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.

People and buildings inside the perimeter

GHSL 2025

Built-up area1.2 ha

Residents≈ 200

Inside the perimeter there were about 1.2 hectares of built-up land and about 200 residents (GHSL 2025, satellite-based estimate).

This is an estimate on 100 m cells, made from satellite imagery and census data: it does not mean that homes burned or that anyone was harmed. The perimeter also contains land that never burned. The GHSL 2025 epoch is a projection made from 2020 and earlier data.

Source: Global Human Settlement Layer (GHS-BUILT-S and GHS-POP R2023A), European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC), © European Union, CC BY 4.0. Sum inside the perimeter computed by WorldFires. human-settlement.emergency.copernicus.eu

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) · forecast models, provisional until the ERA5 reanalysis arrives

Day	High	Min. humidity	Peak gust	Rain	Danger (FWI)
21 Aug	31.3 °C	56 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	fwi. 0
22 Aug	32.5 °C	50 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	fwi. 0
23 Aug	33.0 °C	47 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	fwi. 0
24 Aug	32.5 °C	50 %	35 km/h	0.2 mm	fwi. 0
25 Aug	32.0 °C	48 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	fwi. 0
26 Aug	32.0 °C	48 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	fwi. 0
27 Aug	31.9 °C	45 %	33 km/h	0.0 mm	fwi. 0
28 Aug	32.2 °C	47 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	fwi. 0
29 Aug	32.7 °C	45 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	fwi. 0
30 Aug	32.7 °C	47 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	fwi. 0
31 Aug	32.7 °C	52 %	35 km/h	0.4 mm	fwi. 0
1 Sept	31.5 °C	51 %	35 km/h	0.2 mm	fwi. 0
2 Sept	31.9 °C	52 %	35 km/h	0.3 mm	fwi. 0
3 Sept	32.5 °C	49 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	fwi. 0
4 Sept	32.4 °C	50 %	30 km/h	0.7 mm	fwi. 0
5 Sept	32.1 °C	50 %	34 km/h	1.7 mm	fwi. 0
6 Sept	32.6 °C	50 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	fwi. 0
7 Sept	31.6 °C	57 %	36 km/h	2.2 mm	fwi. 0
8 Sept	32.1 °C	62 %	33 km/h	3.1 mm	fwi. 0
9 Sept	32.2 °C	51 %	41 km/h	1.0 mm	fwi. 0
10 Sept	32.7 °C	49 %	39 km/h	0.2 mm	fwi. 0
11 Sept	31.3 °C	56 %	43 km/h	0.6 mm	fwi. 0
12 Sept	33.0 °C	50 %	32 km/h	0.4 mm	fwi. 0
13 Sept	32.5 °C	47 %	44 km/h	0.6 mm	fwi. 0
14 Sept	31.9 °C	56 %	49 km/h	1.9 mm	fwi. 0
15 Sept	33.7 °C	43 %	41 km/h	0.0 mm	fwi. 0
16 Sept	32.9 °C	44 %	40 km/h	0.6 mm	fwi. 0
17 Sept	34.0 °C	37 %	28 km/h	0.3 mm	fwi. 0
18 Sept	34.7 °C	40 %	34 km/h	0.6 mm	fwi. 0
19 Sept	34.6 °C	44 %	34 km/h	0.5 mm	fwi. 0
20 Sept	33.0 °C	43 %	32 km/h	0.4 mm	fwi. 0
21 Sept	34.5 °C	42 %	32 km/h	0.1 mm	fwi. 0
22 Sept	34.5 °C	41 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	fwi. 0
23 Sept	35.8 °C	37 %	32 km/h	0.9 mm	fwi. 0
24 Sept	33.4 °C	53 %	25 km/h	1.8 mm	fwi. 0
25 Sept	32.9 °C	59 %	22 km/h	5.0 mm	fwi. 0
26 Sept	32.6 °C	55 %	28 km/h	3.7 mm	fwi. 0
27 Sept	33.3 °C	52 %	28 km/h	1.5 mm	fwi. 0
28 Sept	35.0 °C	40 %	27 km/h	1.1 mm	fwi. 0
29 Sept	33.3 °C	54 %	27 km/h	2.2 mm	fwi. 0
30 Sept	33.6 °C	49 %	27 km/h	1.6 mm	fwi. 0
1 Oct	34.9 °C	41 %	31 km/h	1.0 mm	fwi. 0
2 Oct	35.0 °C	38 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	fwi. 0
3 Oct	34.3 °C	41 %	35 km/h	0.6 mm	fwi. 0
4 Oct	34.6 °C	37 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	fwi. 0
5 Oct	34.0 °C	43 %	34 km/h	0.8 mm	fwi. 0
6 Oct	35.0 °C	38 %	39 km/h	0.0 mm	fwi. 0
7 Oct	35.1 °C	33 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	fwi. 0
8 Oct	35.0 °C	37 %	43 km/h	0.0 mm	fwi. 0
9 Oct	34.5 °C	42 %	39 km/h	1.2 mm	fwi. 0
10 Oct	34.2 °C	44 %	32 km/h	2.5 mm	fwi. 0
11 Oct	34.7 °C	41 %	33 km/h	0.4 mm	fwi. 0
12 Oct	35.3 °C	35 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	fwi. 0
13 Oct	34.7 °C	42 %	36 km/h	0.9 mm	fwi. 0
14 Oct	34.5 °C	45 %	25 km/h	2.0 mm	fwi. 0
15 Oct	34.0 °C	50 %	31 km/h	2.7 mm	fwi. 0
16 Oct	34.3 °C	40 %	45 km/h	0.4 mm	fwi. 0
17 Oct	33.8 °C	44 %	38 km/h	1.1 mm	fwi. 0
18 Oct	35.1 °C	42 %	29 km/h	1.6 mm	fwi. 0
19 Oct	33.6 °C	66 %	32 km/h	2.9 mm	fwi. 0
20 Oct	35.3 °C	40 %	32 km/h	0.8 mm	fwi. 0
21 Oct	35.2 °C	33 %	44 km/h	0.1 mm	fwi. 0
22 Oct	35.6 °C	35 %	39 km/h	0.0 mm	fwi. 0
23 Oct	35.2 °C	41 %	26 km/h	0.4 mm	fwi. 0
24 Oct	35.5 °C	44 %	26 km/h	2.0 mm	fwi. 0
25 Oct after	33.2 °C	62 %	42 km/h	2.8 mm	fwi. 0

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 14 Aug 2026

After · 24 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 168 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 75: 5.0 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak168 µg/m³

Days over the guideline25 days

PM10173 µg/m³

Optical depth3.22

WHO 15

202122232425262728293031123456789101112131415161718192021222324252627

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 · 965Every 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 21 August 2026 to 24 October 2026 (65 days). The perimeter dates it from 22 August 2026 to 23 October 2026.
How much area did it burn?: The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 22,072 hectares (220.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire entered 3 municipalities: Paser (22,017 ha, 2.1 %); Balangan (109 ha, 0.1 %); Kota Baru (99 ha, 0.0 %).
Is the Paser fire still active?: Yes: satellites detected fire on 24 Oct 2026, 17:32 UTC. Check the emergency service for the official status.
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 35.8 °C, humidity dropped to 33 % and gusts hit 49 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 0, class Very low.
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

NASA FIRMS ↗
GWIS · Copernicus ↗

History of this page Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.

No changes since 24 October 2026.

RSS Changes to this page

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?

Dates or duration Place or towns Burned area Name It was not a wildfire Same fire as another page Something else

What really happened?

Your connection to the fire (optional) Email (optional)

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; 5 polygons grouped in this page.
Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 22 August 2026 to 23 October 2026. 965 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
We have not matched this page with any official record.
Weather: ECMWF IFS model, provisional until the ERA5 reanalysis arrives. No FWI: there are fewer than 30 days of data before the start.
Built-up area and population come from the JRC Global Human Settlement Layer (epoch 2025, 100 m cells), summed inside the perimeter: an estimate of what was there, not a damage count.

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.