Skip to content
worldfires
ID · Indonesia · →

Tapin fire, 17 July 2026 Tapin, Hulu Sungai Selatan

Burning · last detection 23 Oct 2026, 17:52 UTC

The fire started on 17 July 2026 in Tapin, Indonesia, and satellites saw it burning for 99 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,241 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

This page is probably a fire complex, not a single fire. GWIS merges into one perimeter the fires that touch over weeks, which in large burning seasons can join dozens of separate fires. The total area is reliable; the origin and dates refer to the whole complex.

It is the 25th largest in South Kalimantan since 2016 (of 99 with a page). Number 359 in Indonesia in 2026, of 988.

Is it still active?

Satellites detected fire on 23 Oct 2026, 17:52 UTC. Everything suggests it is still burning. 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
3,241ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
99days
17 Jul 2026 – 23 Oct 2026
Municipalities hit
2
regencies
Started on
17 Jul
2026
Heat detections
615
in a single hotspot: 42 MW
Danger at start
18
Moderate · FWI index
Energy released
1.9GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

23 Oct 2026
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 17 Jul23 Oct

How it evolved, day by day

1718192021222324252628293031124567891011121315161718192021222324252627282930311234567891011121314192021222324252728293012345678910111213141516171820212223

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

The weather it burned in

38°high
41km/h · peak gust
27%lowest humidity

It had gone 8 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

15% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 493 ha in 2019, 3 ha in 2025.

What happened to each town

  1. Tapin where it started
    2,560 ha reached on 17 Jul
    1.2 %
  2. Hulu Sungai Selatan
    688 ha reached on 17 Jul
    0.4 %

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)
17 Jul 36.5 °C 30 % 13 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
18 Jul 35.0 °C 36 % 10 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
19 Jul 35.2 °C 33 % 9 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
20 Jul 35.0 °C 30 % 12 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
21 Jul 35.5 °C 31 % 12 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
22 Jul 34.5 °C 35 % 13 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
23 Jul 33.5 °C 39 % 12 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
24 Jul 31.9 °C 42 % 15 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
25 Jul 33.0 °C 40 % 14 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
26 Jul 36.5 °C 32 % 12 km/h 0.2 mm High 24
27 Jul 33.2 °C 43 % 10 km/h 0.6 mm Moderate 18
28 Jul 32.7 °C 53 % 24 km/h 0.4 mm Moderate 18
29 Jul 33.8 °C 45 % 28 km/h 4.4 mm Low 5
30 Jul 35.0 °C 39 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
31 Jul 35.2 °C 40 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
1 Aug 35.5 °C 38 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
2 Aug 35.5 °C 34 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
3 Aug 35.2 °C 39 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
4 Aug 35.4 °C 37 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
5 Aug 35.0 °C 39 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
6 Aug 35.0 °C 37 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
7 Aug 35.0 °C 37 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
8 Aug 35.0 °C 35 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
9 Aug 34.3 °C 36 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
10 Aug 34.6 °C 36 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
11 Aug 35.1 °C 35 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
12 Aug 35.0 °C 40 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
13 Aug 34.9 °C 42 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
14 Aug 36.3 °C 36 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
15 Aug 35.5 °C 37 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
16 Aug 35.6 °C 34 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
17 Aug 36.4 °C 29 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
18 Aug 36.9 °C 28 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
19 Aug 35.8 °C 32 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
20 Aug 36.0 °C 35 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
21 Aug 36.1 °C 33 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
22 Aug 36.0 °C 36 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
23 Aug 35.6 °C 37 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
24 Aug 35.2 °C 37 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
25 Aug 35.2 °C 37 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
26 Aug 35.5 °C 35 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
27 Aug 35.5 °C 35 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
28 Aug 35.1 °C 35 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
29 Aug 36.2 °C 29 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
30 Aug 36.5 °C 34 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
31 Aug 35.8 °C 36 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
1 Sept 35.7 °C 32 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
2 Sept 36.0 °C 33 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
3 Sept 35.8 °C 33 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
4 Sept 36.0 °C 35 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
5 Sept 35.3 °C 35 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
6 Sept 36.5 °C 33 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
7 Sept 35.0 °C 43 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
8 Sept 35.8 °C 38 % 31 km/h 0.1 mm High 34
9 Sept 35.2 °C 39 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
10 Sept 35.8 °C 34 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
11 Sept 37.0 °C 33 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
12 Sept 37.1 °C 33 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
13 Sept 37.3 °C 32 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
14 Sept 36.2 °C 33 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
15 Sept 37.8 °C 30 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
16 Sept 35.3 °C 37 % 28 km/h 0.7 mm High 28
17 Sept 34.2 °C 39 % 29 km/h 1.2 mm High 22
18 Sept 36.2 °C 34 % 13 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
19 Sept 37.7 °C 30 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
20 Sept 37.5 °C 29 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
21 Sept 37.4 °C 30 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
22 Sept 37.9 °C 27 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
23 Sept 37.3 °C 32 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
24 Sept 35.2 °C 49 % 19 km/h 6.2 mm Very low 5
25 Sept 33.8 °C 54 % 20 km/h 2.3 mm Low 6
26 Sept 37.4 °C 35 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
27 Sept 37.5 °C 33 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
28 Sept 36.5 °C 36 % 14 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
29 Sept 37.2 °C 35 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
30 Sept 37.2 °C 38 % 24 km/h 2.9 mm Moderate 14
1 Oct 38.2 °C 28 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
2 Oct 38.2 °C 29 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
3 Oct 37.3 °C 31 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
4 Oct 37.5 °C 30 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
5 Oct 37.6 °C 29 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 35

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 10 Jul 2026
After · 23 Oct 2026

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 496 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 203: 14 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak496 µg/m³
Days over the guideline71 days
PM10503 µg/m³
Optical depth8.53
15161718192021222324252627282930311234567891011121314151617181920212223242526272829303112345678910111213141516171819202122232425262728293012
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 · 615Every 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 timeSatelliteFRP (MW)LatLon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Indonesia ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Tapin fire last?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 17 July 2026 to 23 October 2026 (99 days). The perimeter dates it from 18 July 2026 to 22 October 2026.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 3,241 hectares (32.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Tapin (2,560 ha, 1.2 %); Hulu Sungai Selatan (688 ha, 0.4 %).
Is the Tapin fire still active?
Yes: satellites detected fire on 23 Oct 2026, 17:52 UTC. Check the emergency service for the official status.
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 38.2 °C, humidity dropped to 27 % and gusts hit 41 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 41, class Very 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.