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Tapin fire, 18 July 2026 Tapin

Out · last detection 13 Sept 2026, 18:21 UTC

The fire started on 18 July 2026 in Tapin, Indonesia, and satellites saw it burning for 59 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 1,517 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

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.

Other fire pages in the same area and on the same dates:

It is the 93th largest in South Kalimantan since 2016 (of 99 with a page). Number 985 in Indonesia in 2026, of 1007.

The power measured by the satellite is low (6.5 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: Banjar · 2026Banjar · 2026Banjar · 2026Banjar · 2018

Burnt area
1,517ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
59days
18 Jul 2026 – 14 Sept 2026
Municipalities hit
1
regencies
Started on
18 Jul
2026
Heat detections
21
in a single hotspot: 6 MW
Danger at start
22
High · FWI index
Average daily power
2MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 18 Jul14 Sept
13 Sept 2026

How it evolved, day by day

24 Aug 2026 · 4 MW · 2 25 Aug 2026 · 2 MW · 1 26 Aug 2026 · 1 MW · 2 28 Aug 2026 · 1 MW · 1 29 Aug 2026 · 2 MW · 1 30 Aug 2026 · 4 MW · 3 1 Sept 2026 · 2 MW · 1 2 Sept 2026 · 1 MW · 1 3 Sept 2026 · 1 MW · 1 4 Sept 2026 · 1 MW · 1 6 Sept 2026 · 14 MW · 3 8 Sept 2026 · 1 MW · 1 9 Sept 2026 · 1 MW · 1 11 Sept 2026 · 1 MW · 1 13 Sept 2026 · 1 MW · 1
24 Aug 28 Aug 1 Sept 4 Sept 6 Sept 9 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

38°high
41km/h · peak gust
30%lowest humidity

It had gone 9 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 2.7 mm on 24 Sept.

This area had burned before

6% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 88 ha in 2023.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 1% of the area of London (15 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

  1. Tapin where it started
    1,528 ha reached on 24 Aug
    0.7 %

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.

People and buildings inside the perimeter

GHSL 2025
Built-up area12 ha
Residents≈ 2,000

Inside the perimeter there were about 12 hectares of built-up land and about 2,000 residents (GHSL 2025, satellite-based estimate).

This is an estimate on 100 m cells, made from satellite imagery and census data: it does not mean that homes burned or that anyone was harmed. The perimeter also contains land that never burned. The GHSL 2025 epoch is a projection made from 2020 and earlier data.

Source: Global Human Settlement Layer (GHS-BUILT-S and GHS-POP R2023A), European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC), © European Union, CC BY 4.0. Sum inside the perimeter computed by WorldFires. human-settlement.emergency.copernicus.eu

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)
18 Jul 36.7 °C 33 % 15 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
19 Jul 35.0 °C 33 % 12 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
20 Jul 35.5 °C 30 % 13 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
21 Jul 35.3 °C 31 % 14 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
22 Jul 35.5 °C 31 % 16 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
23 Jul 33.2 °C 40 % 16 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
24 Jul 33.0 °C 39 % 14 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
25 Jul 32.5 °C 43 % 13 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
26 Jul 36.7 °C 32 % 16 km/h 0.1 mm High 27
27 Jul 33.5 °C 43 % 9 km/h 0.1 mm High 22
28 Jul 32.5 °C 56 % 30 km/h 0.3 mm Moderate 19
29 Jul 33.3 °C 50 % 29 km/h 0.9 mm Moderate 16
30 Jul 35.2 °C 39 % 28 km/h 0.1 mm High 22
31 Jul 35.0 °C 42 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
1 Aug 35.3 °C 39 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
2 Aug 35.4 °C 34 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
3 Aug 35.2 °C 39 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
4 Aug 35.2 °C 39 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
5 Aug 35.0 °C 39 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
6 Aug 35.0 °C 39 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
7 Aug 35.0 °C 36 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
8 Aug 35.2 °C 36 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
9 Aug 34.3 °C 36 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
10 Aug 34.5 °C 36 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
11 Aug 35.1 °C 35 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
12 Aug 35.1 °C 40 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
13 Aug 34.8 °C 43 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
14 Aug 36.0 °C 37 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
15 Aug 35.1 °C 40 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
16 Aug 35.5 °C 36 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
17 Aug 36.2 °C 30 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
18 Aug 36.6 °C 30 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
19 Aug 35.8 °C 32 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
20 Aug 36.1 °C 35 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
21 Aug 36.2 °C 30 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
22 Aug 36.0 °C 36 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
23 Aug 35.4 °C 38 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
24 Aug 34.8 °C 40 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
25 Aug 34.9 °C 38 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
26 Aug 35.4 °C 37 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
27 Aug 35.0 °C 38 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
28 Aug 34.8 °C 37 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
29 Aug 36.0 °C 32 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
30 Aug 36.5 °C 34 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
31 Aug 36.0 °C 35 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
1 Sept 35.5 °C 34 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
2 Sept 36.8 °C 31 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
3 Sept 35.8 °C 33 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
4 Sept 36.2 °C 34 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
5 Sept 35.2 °C 36 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
6 Sept 36.8 °C 32 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
7 Sept 34.8 °C 43 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
8 Sept 35.4 °C 41 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
9 Sept 34.8 °C 41 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
10 Sept 36.2 °C 35 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
11 Sept 36.5 °C 34 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
12 Sept 37.2 °C 33 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
13 Sept 37.5 °C 31 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
14 Sept 36.2 °C 33 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
15 Sept after 37.6 °C 30 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
16 Sept after 35.4 °C 37 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
17 Sept after 34.5 °C 37 % 29 km/h 0.1 mm High 35
18 Sept after 37.1 °C 31 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
19 Sept after 38.3 °C 28 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
20 Sept after 38.2 °C 27 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
21 Sept after 38.2 °C 28 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
22 Sept after 38.7 °C 28 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
23 Sept after 38.3 °C 28 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
24 Sept after 35.9 °C 46 % 20 km/h 2.7 mm Low 10

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 11 Jul 2026
After · 21 Sept 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 16 September 2026 the air beside the fire reached 222 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 57: 3.8 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak222 µg/m³
Days over the guideline26 days
PM10229 µg/m³
Optical depth5.08
16171819202122232425262728293031123456789101112131415161718192021222324252627282930311234567891011121314151617
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 · 21Every 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?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 18 July 2026 and 14 September 2026: 59 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 1,517 hectares (15.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Tapin (1,528 ha, 0.7 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 37.5 °C, humidity dropped to 30 % and gusts hit 41 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 40, 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 · Emergency number and official warnings ›

Satellite cross-check

History of this page Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.

No changes since 24 October 2026.

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?

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 from the perimeter: the VIIRS detections inside it did not change them. 21 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.
  • Built-up area and population come from the JRC Global Human Settlement Layer (epoch 2025, 100 m cells), summed inside the perimeter: an estimate of what was there, not a damage count.

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.