How long did the Paser fire last?

According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 6 October 2026 to 23 October 2026 (18 days). The perimeter dates it from 13 October 2026 to 23 October 2026.

How much area did it burn?

The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 2,494 hectares (24.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire only entered Paser (2,511 ha, 0.2 %).

Is the Paser fire still active?

No fire detections since 23 Oct 2026, 05:55 UTC. A lack of detections is not an official extinction.

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 35.1 °C, humidity dropped to 32 % and gusts hit 41 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 16, class Moderate.

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 · 2026-10-06 → 2026-10-23

Paser fire, 6 October 2026 Paser

Dying down · last detection 23 Oct 2026, 05:55 UTC

The fire started on 6 October 2026 in Paser, Indonesia, and satellites saw it burning for 18 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,494 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 42th largest in East Kalimantan since 2016 (of 98 with a page). Number 506 in Indonesia in 2026, of 1005.

The power measured by the satellite is low (14.5 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.

Is it still active?

No detections since 23 Oct 2026, 05:55 UTC. That usually means no flame is visible from space any more, although hotspots may remain. 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: 2,494ha; GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration: 18days; 6 Oct 2026 – 23 Oct 2026
Municipalities hit: 1; regencies
Started on: 6 Oct; 2026
Heat detections: 78; in a single hotspot: 15 MW
Danger at start: 14; Moderate · FWI index
Energy released: 195MW; sum of detected power

Play back 23 Oct 2026

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 6 Oct23 Oct

How it evolved, day by day

678101113141516171820212223

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

41km/h · peak gust

32%lowest humidity

It had gone 0 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

2,511 ha reached on 6 Oct

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)
6 Oct	34.8 °C	35 %	41 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 14
7 Oct	35.1 °C	32 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 14
8 Oct	34.8 °C	35 %	37 km/h	0.1 mm	Moderate 16
9 Oct	34.8 °C	39 %	38 km/h	1.6 mm	Low 9
10 Oct	32.8 °C	61 %	29 km/h	5.5 mm	Very low 1
11 Oct	33.4 °C	52 %	36 km/h	1.2 mm	Very low 5
12 Oct	33.6 °C	48 %	32 km/h	0.8 mm	Low 8
13 Oct	31.9 °C	55 %	32 km/h	4.7 mm	Very low 1
14 Oct	32.3 °C	54 %	24 km/h	3.5 mm	Very low 1
15 Oct	32.9 °C	56 %	34 km/h	4.4 mm	Very low 1
16 Oct	33.6 °C	46 %	35 km/h	0.5 mm	Low 6
17 Oct	29.7 °C	68 %	34 km/h	3.3 mm	Very low 1
18 Oct	34.0 °C	44 %	27 km/h	1.8 mm	Very low 2
19 Oct	32.9 °C	49 %	27 km/h	3.7 mm	Very low 1
20 Oct	34.1 °C	42 %	26 km/h	0.7 mm	Low 6
21 Oct	34.7 °C	36 %	36 km/h	0.3 mm	Moderate 11
22 Oct	34.3 °C	38 %	33 km/h	0.2 mm	Moderate 12

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 29 Sept 2026

After · 23 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 9 October 2026 the air beside the fire reached 247 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 157: 10 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak247 µg/m³

Days over the guideline18 days

PM10250 µg/m³

Optical depth6.30

WHO 15

456789101112131415161718192021

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 · 78Every 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 6 October 2026 to 23 October 2026 (18 days). The perimeter dates it from 13 October 2026 to 23 October 2026.
How much area did it burn?: The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 2,494 hectares (24.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire only entered Paser (2,511 ha, 0.2 %).
Is the Paser fire still active?: No fire detections since 23 Oct 2026, 05:55 UTC. A lack of detections is not an official extinction.
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 35.1 °C, humidity dropped to 32 % and gusts hit 41 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 16, class Moderate.
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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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.