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Paser fire, 31 August 2026 Paser

Out · last measured on 15 Sept 2026

The fire started on 31 August 2026 in Paser, Indonesia, and satellites saw it burning for 16 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 1,908 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 66th largest in East Kalimantan since 2016 (of 98 with a page). Number 698 in Indonesia in 2026, of 1005.

We have the GWIS perimeter for this fire, but not yet its hotspots: NASA publishes the yearly hotspot archive only once the year closes. The page picks them up automatically when they are available.

Burnt area
1,908ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
16days
31 Aug 2026 – 15 Sept 2026
Municipalities hit
1
regencies
Started on
31 Aug
2026
Danger at start
28
High · FWI index

Where it burned

The weather it burned in

34°high
36km/h · peak gust
40%lowest humidity

It had gone 33 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.9 mm on 16 Sept.

This area had burned before

80% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 343 ha in 2018, 1,349 ha in 2019, 1,443 ha in 2023. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 1,533 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Paser where it started
    1,921 ha
    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)
31 Aug 33.8 °C 47 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
1 Sept 33.8 °C 40 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
2 Sept 34.2 °C 42 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
3 Sept 34.0 °C 43 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
4 Sept 34.3 °C 44 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
5 Sept 34.2 °C 44 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
6 Sept 33.5 °C 49 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
7 Sept 33.0 °C 53 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
8 Sept 34.1 °C 46 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
9 Sept 32.7 °C 53 % 30 km/h 0.1 mm High 26
10 Sept 34.0 °C 44 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
11 Sept 33.5 °C 43 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
12 Sept 32.8 °C 54 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
13 Sept 32.5 °C 55 % 31 km/h 0.2 mm High 26
14 Sept 34.5 °C 41 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
15 Sept 34.1 °C 44 % 34 km/h 0.2 mm High 30
16 Sept after 33.3 °C 45 % 24 km/h 1.9 mm Moderate 14

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 24 Aug 2026
After · 22 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 17 September 2026 the air beside the fire reached 106 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 42: 2.8 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak106 µg/m³
Days over the guideline18 days
PM10112 µg/m³
Optical depth2.59
293031123456789101112131415161718
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)

Other fires nearby

All fires in Indonesia ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Paser fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 31 August 2026 and 15 September 2026: 16 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 1,908 hectares (19.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Paser (1,921 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 34.5 °C, humidity dropped to 40 % and gusts hit 36 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

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
What do you think is wrong?

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.