How long did the Sukamara fire last?

GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 9 September 2026 and 24 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 2,528 hectares (25.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire entered 2 municipalities: Sukamara (1,831 ha, 0.6 %); Kotawaringin Barat (714 ha, 0.1 %).

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 33.6 °C, humidity dropped to 50 % and gusts hit 42 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 27, 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.

ID · Indonesia · 2026-09-09 → 2026-09-24

Sukamara fire, 9 September 2026 Sukamara, Kotawaringin Barat

Out · last detection 24 Sept 2026, 18:15 UTC

The fire started on 9 September 2026 in Sukamara, Indonesia, and satellites saw it burning for 16 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,528 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 163th largest in Central Kalimantan since 2016 (of 310 with a page). Number 489 in Indonesia in 2026, of 988.

Burnt area: 2,528ha; GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration: 16days; 9 Sept 2026 – 24 Sept 2026
Municipalities hit: 2; regencies
Started on: 9 Sept; 2026
Heat detections: 50; in a single hotspot: 32 MW
Danger at start: 24; High · FWI index
Energy released: 336MW; sum of detected power

Play back 24 Sept 2026

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 9 Sept24 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

101113141618192021222324

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

42km/h · peak gust

50%lowest humidity

It had gone 37 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.3 mm on 29 Sept.

This area had burned before

17% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 80 ha in 2019, 718 ha in 2023. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 432 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

Sukamara where it started

1,831 ha reached on 10 Sept

0.6 %
Kotawaringin Barat

714 ha reached on 23 Sept

0.1 %

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)
4 Sept	30.7 °C	59 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	High 24
5 Sept	31.4 °C	54 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	High 24
6 Sept	31.6 °C	51 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	High 24
7 Sept	31.0 °C	61 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	High 23
8 Sept	31.3 °C	60 %	41 km/h	0.0 mm	High 25
9 Sept	32.2 °C	54 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	High 24
10 Sept	32.3 °C	54 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	High 24
11 Sept	32.8 °C	52 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	High 25
12 Sept	33.2 °C	50 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	High 24
13 Sept	32.0 °C	59 %	42 km/h	0.0 mm	High 26
14 Sept	32.5 °C	51 %	41 km/h	0.0 mm	High 26
15 Sept	32.3 °C	52 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	High 24
16 Sept	31.5 °C	54 %	41 km/h	0.0 mm	High 26
17 Sept	31.1 °C	58 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	High 24
18 Sept	32.8 °C	51 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	High 25
19 Sept	32.9 °C	55 %	39 km/h	0.0 mm	High 25
20 Sept	33.6 °C	51 %	42 km/h	0.0 mm	High 26
21 Sept	32.3 °C	58 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	High 26
22 Sept	33.3 °C	54 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	High 27
23 Sept	32.5 °C	56 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	High 27
24 Sept	33.3 °C	53 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	High 26
25 Sept after	33.0 °C	57 %	32 km/h	0.9 mm	Moderate 18
26 Sept after	32.9 °C	59 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 21
27 Sept after	31.5 °C	63 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 21
28 Sept after	32.6 °C	55 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	High 22
29 Sept after	33.6 °C	51 %	37 km/h	1.3 mm	Moderate 19

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 2 Sept 2026

After · 1 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 21 September 2026 the air beside the fire reached 508 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 230: 15 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak508 µg/m³

Days over the guideline21 days

PM10520 µg/m³

Optical depth6.28

WHO 15

789101112131415161718192021222324252627

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 · 50Every 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 Sukamara fire last?: GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 9 September 2026 and 24 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 2,528 hectares (25.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire entered 2 municipalities: Sukamara (1,831 ha, 0.6 %); Kotawaringin Barat (714 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 33.6 °C, humidity dropped to 50 % and gusts hit 42 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 27, 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

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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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