Fire Underground! Indonesia’s Hidden Blazes Are Burning Below the Earth
Quick Summary
Fires are burning under the ground in Indonesia — and they are some of the trickiest fires on Earth to stop. NASA satellites spotted hundreds of these blazes early in September 2026. Scientists say a dry weather pattern called El Niño is making things worse. Firefighters and researchers are working hard to keep the situation from growing.
What Happened?
Most fires race through trees and grass above the ground. But Indonesia has a special kind of landscape called a peatland — a soggy wetland made of thick layers of old, partly rotted plants built up over thousands of years. Think of it like a giant, spongy slab of brown material buried under the soil, like a very old, very large compost pile.
When peatlands dry out, they can catch fire — and those fires burn below the surface. The ground can smolder slowly underground for weeks or even months, even after the flames on top are gone. That makes peat fires incredibly hard to put out.
NASA’s Aqua satellite captured images on September 1, 2026, showing hundreds of fire detections — red dots on a map — spread across Indonesia, especially in the islands of Kalimantan and Sumatra. Indonesia holds about 36 percent of all tropical peatland on Earth.
The fires are happening because of two big problems hitting at the same time. First, a weather pattern called El Niño is strengthening over the Pacific Ocean. El Niño pushes dry air over Indonesia, which means far less rain than usual. By early August 2026, about 90 percent of Indonesia received little to no rainfall at all. Second, a separate ocean pattern called the Indian Ocean Dipole is adding even more dryness to the region.
When peat dries out, it becomes extremely flammable. Fires that move underground then release huge amounts of thick, hazardous smoke. That smoke can make the air unhealthy to breathe for people living nearby. Some schools have shifted to remote learning and several flights have been delayed because of smoky skies.
Workers on the ground are fighting fires, blocking drainage canals, and restoring wetlands to help keep the peat wet. Scientists compare 2026 to 2015, when Indonesia had one of its worst fire seasons ever — a season when fires burned for more than three months.
Why Does It Matter?
Peatlands store enormous amounts of carbon — the same carbon that, when released into the air, contributes to warming the planet. When peat burns, it releases that stored carbon. Scientists are watching 2026 closely to make sure the fires do not grow to the scale of 2015. The faster firefighters and local communities respond, the better the chances of keeping things under control.
Big Words
- Peatland — a type of wetland where layers of old, soggy plant material called peat have built up over thousands of years
- El Niño — a natural weather pattern in the Pacific Ocean that causes unusual droughts in some parts of the world and extra rain in others
- Smolder — to burn slowly without flames, creating a lot of smoke
- Carbon — a natural element found in all living things; when burned, it enters the atmosphere as carbon dioxide
- Indian Ocean Dipole — a pattern of sea-surface temperatures in the Indian Ocean that can shift rainfall across Africa, Australia, and Asia
Fun Fact
Peat forms so slowly that a layer just one meter (about 3 feet) thick can take up to 1,000 years to build up. The peat burning in Indonesia today has been growing for longer than many ancient civilizations have existed!
Think About It
If peat needs water to stay safe, what are some ways communities near peatlands could help keep them wet — especially during a drought?
Sources
- NASA Science — ‘Peatland Fires Darken Skies in Indonesia’
- ScienceDaily — ‘Indonesia’s most dangerous fires are burning underground’
- Earth.com — ‘Fires are burning underground across Indonesia as El Niño strengthens’
- JFeed — ‘Indonesia Peat Fires: Underground Blazes Burn for Months’