Sambas fire, 10 August 2026 Sambas
The fire started on 10 August 2026 in Sambas, Indonesia, and satellites saw it burning for 32 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,484 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 76th largest in West Kalimantan since 2016 (of 264 with a page). Number 334 in Indonesia in 2026, of 988.
- Burnt area
- 3,484ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 32days
- 10 Aug 2026 – 10 Sept 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- regencies
- Started on
- 10 Aug
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 225
- in a single hotspot: 101 MW
- Danger at start
- 11
- Low · FWI index
- Energy released
- 2.0GW
- sum of detected power
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 5 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 3.5 mm on 11 Sept.
This area had burned before
91% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,284 ha in 2016, 596 ha in 2017, 4,116 ha in 2018, 596 ha in 2019, 928 ha in 2021, 1,083 ha in 2022, 1,598 ha in 2023, 1,148 ha in 2024, 1,199 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 3,166 ha that had burned before.
- 2,672 ha Sambas fire, August 2018 11,301 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 865 ha Sambas fire, August 2016 2,419 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 465 ha Sambas fire, July 2018 1,848 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 444 ha Sambas fire, March 2022 3,876 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 299 ha Sambas fire, August 2016 2,228 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 272 ha Sambas fire, August 2019 3,091 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 129 ha Sambas fire, July 2024 1,813 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Sambas where it started3,508 ha reached on 10 Aug0.6 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10 Aug | 33.5 °C | 51 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 11 |
| 11 Aug | 33.0 °C | 56 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 11 |
| 12 Aug | 33.0 °C | 56 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 12 |
| 13 Aug | 33.2 °C | 53 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 12 |
| 14 Aug | 33.8 °C | 54 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 12 |
| 15 Aug | 34.6 °C | 52 % | 28 km/h | 0.5 mm | Moderate 13 |
| 16 Aug | 33.5 °C | 57 % | 25 km/h | 3.6 mm | Very low 2 |
| 17 Aug | 32.5 °C | 60 % | 33 km/h | 0.7 mm | Low 6 |
| 18 Aug | 34.2 °C | 53 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 11 |
| 19 Aug | 33.6 °C | 55 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 12 |
| 20 Aug | 34.5 °C | 47 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 16 |
| 21 Aug | 35.3 °C | 45 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 17 |
| 22 Aug | 33.5 °C | 56 % | 26 km/h | 1.0 mm | Low 9 |
| 23 Aug | 32.0 °C | 64 % | 32 km/h | 1.3 mm | Low 7 |
| 24 Aug | 34.5 °C | 50 % | 33 km/h | 0.2 mm | Moderate 14 |
| 25 Aug | 35.5 °C | 47 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 17 |
| 26 Aug | 32.8 °C | 60 % | 30 km/h | 3.2 mm | Very low 4 |
| 27 Aug | 34.6 °C | 47 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 14 |
| 28 Aug | 34.0 °C | 49 % | 30 km/h | 0.1 mm | Moderate 16 |
| 29 Aug | 36.0 °C | 41 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 30 Aug | 35.3 °C | 48 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 31 Aug | 35.2 °C | 46 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 1 Sept | 35.0 °C | 51 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 2 Sept | 34.3 °C | 53 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 3 Sept | 33.7 °C | 51 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 4 Sept | 34.0 °C | 50 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 5 Sept | 33.6 °C | 53 % | 27 km/h | 1.4 mm | Moderate 12 |
| 6 Sept | 34.0 °C | 51 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 18 |
| 7 Sept | 33.3 °C | 52 % | 34 km/h | 0.1 mm | Moderate 19 |
| 8 Sept | 32.2 °C | 60 % | 23 km/h | 2.0 mm | Low 6 |
| 9 Sept | 32.9 °C | 60 % | 29 km/h | 3.7 mm | Very low 4 |
| 10 Sept | 33.7 °C | 53 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 12 |
| 11 Sept after | 34.5 °C | 51 % | 32 km/h | 3.5 mm | Very low 5 |
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 1 September 2026 the air beside the fire reached 264 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 138: 9.2 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 · 225Every 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 Sambas fire last?
- According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 10 August 2026 to 10 September 2026 (32 days). The perimeter dates it from 12 August 2026 to 3 September 2026.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 3,484 hectares (34.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Sambas (3,508 ha, 0.6 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 36.0 °C, humidity dropped to 41 % and gusts hit 44 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 24, 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
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.