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Seruyan fire, 11 September 2023 Seruyan, Kotawaringin Barat

Out · last measured on 7 Oct 2023

The fire started on 11 September 2023 in Seruyan, Indonesia, and satellites saw it burning for 27 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 15,275 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 24th largest in Central Kalimantan since 2016 (of 315 with a page). The largest in Indonesia in 2023, of 168.

We have the GWIS perimeter for this fire, but the VIIRS sensors did not capture it in enough detail: no day-by-day evolution, but the split by municipality is there.

Burnt area
15,275ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
27days
11 Sept 2023 – 7 Oct 2023
Municipalities hit
2
regencies
Started on
11 Sept
2023
Danger at start
9
Low · FWI index

Where it burned

The weather it burned in

34°high
53km/h · peak gust
41%lowest humidity

It had gone 16 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 6.9 mm on 8 Oct.

This area had burned before

80% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,568 ha in 2018, 18,174 ha in 2019. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 12,199 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Seruyan where it started
    9,439 ha
    0.6 %
  2. Kotawaringin Barat
    5,921 ha
    0.7 %

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)
11 Sept 31.1 °C 60 % 46 km/h 2.1 mm Low 9
12 Sept 31.2 °C 64 % 51 km/h 1.3 mm Low 11
13 Sept 31.7 °C 55 % 45 km/h 0.2 mm Moderate 18
14 Sept 31.2 °C 57 % 46 km/h 0.1 mm Moderate 20
15 Sept 31.7 °C 52 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
16 Sept 32.4 °C 53 % 43 km/h 0.3 mm Moderate 21
17 Sept 31.8 °C 59 % 44 km/h 1.4 mm Moderate 13
18 Sept 32.4 °C 50 % 37 km/h 0.5 mm Moderate 20
19 Sept 33.7 °C 46 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
20 Sept 32.2 °C 56 % 41 km/h 0.2 mm High 24
21 Sept 32.7 °C 52 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
22 Sept 31.9 °C 51 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
23 Sept 32.5 °C 48 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
24 Sept 32.1 °C 55 % 40 km/h 1.0 mm Moderate 18
25 Sept 32.9 °C 48 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
26 Sept 32.2 °C 49 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
27 Sept 31.8 °C 53 % 53 km/h 0.1 mm High 28
28 Sept 33.0 °C 54 % 51 km/h 0.4 mm High 28
29 Sept 33.1 °C 49 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
30 Sept 33.7 °C 41 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
1 Oct 32.8 °C 46 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
2 Oct 32.5 °C 49 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
3 Oct 32.1 °C 56 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
4 Oct 32.6 °C 53 % 42 km/h 0.7 mm High 23
5 Oct 32.9 °C 59 % 39 km/h 1.6 mm Moderate 13
6 Oct 33.5 °C 51 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
7 Oct 33.2 °C 49 % 48 km/h 0.2 mm High 26
8 Oct after 33.4 °C 59 % 37 km/h 6.9 mm Low 5

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 4 Sept 2023
After · 14 Oct 2023

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 2023 the air beside the fire reached 56 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 31: 2.1 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak56 µg/m³
Days over the guideline26 days
PM1086 µg/m³
Optical depth2.21
910111213141516171819202122232425262728293012345678910
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 Seruyan fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 11 September 2023 and 7 October 2023: 27 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 15,275 hectares (152.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Seruyan (9,439 ha, 0.6 %); Kotawaringin Barat (5,921 ha, 0.7 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 33.7 °C, humidity dropped to 41 % and gusts hit 53 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 30, 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.