Wildfire near Bula (Oct 5), Indonesia (2026)

Wildfire near Bula (Oct 5) — Sentinel-2 true color

Wildfire near Bula (Oct 5) — Sentinel-2 SWIR (fuego)

True view Fire view

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True view (left): as the eye sees it.
Fire view (right): infrared (SWIR), sees through smoke and brings out the heat.

🟢 green = vegetation
🟤 brown = already burned
🟠 orange = fire right now

Drag to compare: normal photo on the left, heat brought out on the right.

Green: vegetationBrown: already burnedOrange: fire right nowSentinel-2 · Copernicus

The story so far

About 30 km southwest of Bula.

Summary written on Sep 28, while the fire was still active. It has since ended — the figures above are current.

An active wildfire spanning 680 hectares, or 1,680 acres, continues to burn near the city of Bula, Indonesia, following its start on September 27, 2026. Satellites are picking up a low heat signature from the front, while 36 heat detections cluster nearby over the past 48 hours to indicate the current spread of the blaze.

Burning during the dry season, this incident unfolds within a broader national context that has seen 5,267,027 hectares burned so far in 2026, a figure that runs 48% above the two-decade average for the country.

In context

This wildfire burned in Indonesia for 2 days. In total it burned about 530 ha (1,310 acres) — around 5.3 km². That size is an estimate from satellite hotspots, not a measured area.

Close to the tropics, fires tend to follow the dry season and are often linked to land-clearing rather than a single summer peak.