Paser fire, 27 August 2026 Paser
The fire started on 27 August 2026 in Paser, Indonesia, and satellites saw it burning for 50 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 11,331 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:
- 7,531 haPaser1 September 2026 · 47 days
- 2,532 haPaser17 August 2026 · 21 days
- ≈ 2,072 haPaser2 October 2026 · provisional · not counted · 17 days
- 2,069 haPaser15 August 2026 · 18 days
- 1,910 haPaser 26 September 2026 · 17 days
- 1,854 haKota Baru15 September 2026 · 13 days
- 1,636 haKota Baru11 October 2026 · 5 days
- 1,504 haKota Baru 12 October 2026 · 12 days
It is the 8th largest in East Kalimantan since 2016 (of 98 with a page). Number 91 in Indonesia in 2026, of 1004.
Compare with…
Suggestions: Paser · 2026Paser · 2026Paser · 2026Kota Baru · 2026
- Burnt area
- 11,331ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 50days
- 27 Aug 2026 – 15 Oct 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- regencies
- Started on
- 27 Aug
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 231
- in a single hotspot: 171 MW
- Danger at start
- 26
- High · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 56MW
- detected power per day, on average
Where it burned
How it evolved, day by day
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
It had gone 28 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.
How big is it?
London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).
Jakarta boundary: geoBoundaries · Badan Pusat Statistik (BPS - Statistics Indonesia), World Food Programme, OCHA ROAP (CC BY 3.0 IGO).
Paris boundary: geoBoundaries · Institut national de l'information géographique et forestière (IGN-F) (Etalab Open License 2.0).
Madrid boundary: geoBoundaries · Open Data ESRI, IGN Central Registry of Cartography Area (CC BY 4.0).
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 started11,301 ha reached on 27 Aug1.1 %
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 2025Inside the perimeter there were about 0.16 hectares of built-up land and about 30 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) · Copernicus Climate Change Service (ERA5)
| Day | High | Min. humidity | Peak gust | Rain | Danger (FWI) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 27 Aug | 32.8 °C | 47 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 28 Aug | 32.5 °C | 48 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 29 Aug | 33.0 °C | 48 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 30 Aug | 33.9 °C | 46 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 31 Aug | 32.9 °C | 51 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 1 Sept | 33.3 °C | 45 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 2 Sept | 33.0 °C | 49 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 3 Sept | 34.1 °C | 43 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 4 Sept | 34.0 °C | 46 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 5 Sept | 33.5 °C | 48 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 6 Sept | 34.2 °C | 45 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 7 Sept | 32.6 °C | 56 % | 35 km/h | 0.2 mm | High 26 |
| 8 Sept | 34.2 °C | 48 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 9 Sept | 31.8 °C | 59 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 10 Sept | 33.5 °C | 49 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 11 Sept | 33.8 °C | 42 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 12 Sept | 34.0 °C | 47 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 13 Sept | 33.3 °C | 52 % | 38 km/h | 0.4 mm | High 28 |
| 14 Sept | 33.2 °C | 48 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 15 Sept | 34.1 °C | 45 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 16 Sept | 33.8 °C | 47 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 17 Sept | 33.3 °C | 45 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 18 Sept | 34.9 °C | 39 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 19 Sept | 34.9 °C | 45 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 20 Sept | 34.7 °C | 45 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 21 Sept | 34.7 °C | 46 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 22 Sept | 35.5 °C | 43 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 23 Sept | 36.2 °C | 41 % | 28 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 29 |
| 24 Sept | 34.3 °C | 47 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 25 Sept | 34.2 °C | 53 % | 21 km/h | 1.2 mm | Moderate 15 |
| 26 Sept | 34.8 °C | 49 % | 26 km/h | 0.4 mm | High 22 |
| 27 Sept | 35.6 °C | 44 % | 25 km/h | 0.2 mm | High 26 |
| 28 Sept | 35.7 °C | 42 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 29 Sept | 34.3 °C | 51 % | 26 km/h | 0.4 mm | High 26 |
| 30 Sept | 34.7 °C | 48 % | 28 km/h | 0.4 mm | High 28 |
| 1 Oct | 35.2 °C | 44 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 2 Oct | 35.9 °C | 41 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 3 Oct | 34.8 °C | 44 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 4 Oct | 35.7 °C | 40 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 5 Oct | 35.0 °C | 42 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
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 · CopernicusOn 23 September 2026 the air beside the fire reached 51 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 25: 1.6 times the WHO daily guideline (15).
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 · 231Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Paser fire last?
- According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 27 August 2026 to 15 October 2026 (50 days). The perimeter dates it from 28 August 2026 to 8 October 2026.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 11,331 hectares (113.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Paser (11,301 ha, 1.1 %).
- Is the Paser fire still active?
- No fire detections since 15 Oct 2026, 05:59 UTC. A lack of detections is not an official extinction.
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 36.2 °C, humidity dropped to 39 % and gusts hit 44 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 31, 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 · Emergency number and official warnings ›
Satellite cross-check
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.
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
How we know this
- Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery; 4 polygons grouped in this page.
- Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 28 August 2026 to 8 October 2026. 231 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.
- 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.
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.