How long did the Paser fire last?

GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 20 August 2026 and 3 September 2026: 15 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 5,730 hectares (57.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire only entered Paser (5,769 ha, 0.5 %).

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 35.7 °C, humidity dropped to 35 % and gusts hit 33 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.

ID · Indonesia · 2026-08-20 → 2026-09-03

Paser fire, 20 August 2026 Paser

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

The fire started on 20 August 2026 in Paser, Indonesia, and satellites saw it burning for 15 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,730 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 15th largest in East Kalimantan since 2016 (of 98 with a page). Number 203 in Indonesia in 2026, of 1005.

Burnt area: 5,730ha; GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration: 15days; 20 Aug 2026 – 3 Sept 2026
Municipalities hit: 1; regencies
Started on: 20 Aug; 2026
Heat detections: 108; in a single hotspot: 32 MW
Danger at start: 26; High · FWI index
Energy released: 803MW; sum of detected power

Play back 3 Sept 2026

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 20 Aug3 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

212223252628293031123

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

33km/h · peak gust

35%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

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

What happened to each town

Paser where it started

5,769 ha reached on 16 Aug

0.5 %

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	34.8 °C	40 %	29 km/h	0.0 mm	High 26
17 Aug	35.5 °C	37 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	High 28
18 Aug	35.0 °C	41 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	High 27
19 Aug	35.2 °C	40 %	25 km/h	0.0 mm	High 26
20 Aug	35.1 °C	39 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	High 28
21 Aug	34.2 °C	43 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	High 29
22 Aug	35.3 °C	39 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	High 28
23 Aug	35.5 °C	39 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	High 29
24 Aug	34.5 °C	43 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	High 29
25 Aug	34.8 °C	39 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	High 30
26 Aug	34.1 °C	45 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	High 29
27 Aug	34.5 °C	42 %	29 km/h	0.0 mm	High 29
28 Aug	34.2 °C	42 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	High 30
29 Aug	34.5 °C	43 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	High 29
30 Aug	35.5 °C	37 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	High 30
31 Aug	35.1 °C	41 %	33 km/h	0.0 mm	High 31
1 Sept	34.5 °C	38 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	High 31
2 Sept	35.4 °C	36 %	33 km/h	0.0 mm	High 32
3 Sept	35.5 °C	35 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	High 29
4 Sept after	35.7 °C	38 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	High 32
5 Sept after	35.2 °C	39 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	High 32
6 Sept after	35.6 °C	38 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	High 31
7 Sept after	33.6 °C	51 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	High 27
8 Sept after	35.6 °C	41 %	29 km/h	0.0 mm	High 28
9 Sept after	33.8 °C	48 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	High 30
10 Sept after	35.0 °C	40 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	High 29
11 Sept after	34.9 °C	40 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	High 30
12 Sept after	34.5 °C	45 %	25 km/h	0.1 mm	High 28
13 Sept after	34.2 °C	48 %	32 km/h	0.2 mm	High 30
14 Sept after	35.1 °C	40 %	39 km/h	0.0 mm	High 32
15 Sept after	36.2 °C	36 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	High 32
16 Sept after	34.3 °C	43 %	28 km/h	0.7 mm	High 25
17 Sept after	34.0 °C	42 %	29 km/h	0.5 mm	High 26
18 Sept after	36.8 °C	35 %	28 km/h	0.4 mm	High 31

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 13 Aug 2026

After · 10 Sept 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 29 August 2026 the air beside the fire reached 52 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 28: 1.9 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak52 µg/m³

Days over the guideline6 days

PM1054 µg/m³

Optical depth1.13

WHO 15

2122232425262728293031123456

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 · 108Every 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?: GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 20 August 2026 and 3 September 2026: 15 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 5,730 hectares (57.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire only entered Paser (5,769 ha, 0.5 %).
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 35.7 °C, humidity dropped to 35 % and gusts hit 33 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

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.

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What really happened?

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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.

Where it burned