How long did the Pinrang fire last?

According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 31 August 2026 to 20 September 2026 (21 days). The perimeter dates it from 4 September 2026 to 14 September 2026.

How much area did it burn?

The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 1,669 hectares (16.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire entered 3 municipalities: Pinrang (1,146 ha, 0.6 %); Sidenreng Rappang (306 ha, 0.2 %); Kota Parepare (228 ha, 2.6 %).

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 34.5 °C, humidity dropped to 27 % and gusts hit 62 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 52, class Extreme.

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 · 2026-08-31 → 2026-09-20

Pinrang fire, August 2026 Pinrang, Sidenreng Rappang, Kota Parepare

Out · last detection 20 Sept 2026, 05:08 UTC

The fire started on 31 August 2026 in Pinrang, Indonesia, and satellites saw it burning for 21 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 1,669 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.

It is the 18th largest in South Sulawesi since 2016 (of 21 with a page). Number 854 in Indonesia in 2026, of 1009.

The power measured by the satellite is low (25.7 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Sidenreng Rappang · 2026 Sidenreng Rappang · 2026 Sidenreng Rappang · 2026 Soppeng · 2026

Burnt area: 1,669ha; GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration: 21days; 31 Aug 2026 – 20 Sept 2026
Municipalities hit: 3; regencies
Started on: 31 Aug; 2026
Heat detections: 57; in a single hotspot: 26 MW
Danger at start: 39; Very high · FWI index
Average daily power: 22MW; detected power per day, on average

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 31 Aug20 Sept

Play back 20 Sept 2026

How it evolved, day by day

31 Aug 4 Sept 7 Sept 11 Sept 12 Sept 16 Sept 20 Sept

Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.

The weather it burned in

34°high

62km/h · peak gust

27%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

18% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 308 ha in 2025.

How big is it?

It burned the equivalent of 1.1% of the area of London (17 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

Pinrang where it started

1,146 ha reached on 1 Sept

0.6 %
Sidenreng Rappang

306 ha reached on 31 Aug

0.2 %
Kota Parepare

228 ha reached on 31 Aug

2.6 %

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.

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	33.9 °C	38 %	51 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 39
1 Sept	32.9 °C	33 %	55 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 43
2 Sept	32.8 °C	34 %	44 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 38
3 Sept	32.9 °C	43 %	45 km/h	0.0 mm	High 37
4 Sept	34.5 °C	41 %	41 km/h	0.0 mm	High 37
5 Sept	33.5 °C	41 %	42 km/h	0.0 mm	High 35
6 Sept	34.4 °C	43 %	42 km/h	0.1 mm	High 36
7 Sept	33.3 °C	39 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	High 32
8 Sept	34.2 °C	35 %	41 km/h	0.0 mm	High 35
9 Sept	33.6 °C	37 %	45 km/h	0.0 mm	High 38
10 Sept	33.4 °C	40 %	46 km/h	0.0 mm	High 37
11 Sept	34.0 °C	32 %	49 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 41
12 Sept	33.4 °C	44 %	52 km/h	0.1 mm	Very high 39
13 Sept	33.2 °C	35 %	61 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 45
14 Sept	33.5 °C	27 %	61 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 52
15 Sept	33.0 °C	28 %	62 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 51
16 Sept	33.3 °C	31 %	58 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 50
17 Sept	33.6 °C	31 %	56 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 48
18 Sept	34.0 °C	32 %	53 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 47
19 Sept	34.0 °C	37 %	48 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 43
20 Sept	34.2 °C	36 %	45 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 43
21 Sept after	35.7 °C	34 %	45 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 44
22 Sept after	35.0 °C	35 %	43 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 41
23 Sept after	35.0 °C	36 %	41 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 41
24 Sept after	33.7 °C	46 %	41 km/h	0.0 mm	High 35
25 Sept after	34.6 °C	38 %	40 km/h	0.2 mm	High 36
26 Sept after	35.2 °C	39 %	43 km/h	0.0 mm	High 36
27 Sept after	34.8 °C	38 %	44 km/h	0.0 mm	High 36
28 Sept after	35.1 °C	29 %	44 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 41
29 Sept after	35.8 °C	31 %	39 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 39
30 Sept after	35.0 °C	33 %	41 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 24 Aug 2026

After · 27 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 3 September 2026 the air beside the fire reached 53 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 23: 1.6 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak53 µg/m³

Days over the guideline11 days

PM1059 µg/m³

Optical depth0.49

WHO 15

2930311234567891011121314151617181920212223

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 · 57Every 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 Pinrang fire last?: According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 31 August 2026 to 20 September 2026 (21 days). The perimeter dates it from 4 September 2026 to 14 September 2026.
How much area did it burn?: The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 1,669 hectares (16.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire entered 3 municipalities: Pinrang (1,146 ha, 0.6 %); Sidenreng Rappang (306 ha, 0.2 %); Kota Parepare (228 ha, 2.6 %).
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 34.5 °C, humidity dropped to 27 % and gusts hit 62 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 52, class Extreme.
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 · 1 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.

25 October 2026 Name: Kota Parepare → Pinrang.

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.
Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 4 September 2026 to 14 September 2026. 57 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.

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.

Where it burned