Smoke persists at Bali's former Sente landfill after weekend fire

In brief: The blaze at the former Sente landfill in Pikat village, Klungkung, began on 24 October. On 26 October, after the main flames were contained, smoke was still rising from the rubbish mound; crews planned further cooling the next morning.

Crews plan another day of cooling on 27 October

The first emergency report reached Klungkung's disaster management agency, BPBD, at about 5 pm Bali time on Saturday, 24 October. Firefighters, disaster-response teams and residents worked at the site in Dawan district, with provincial crews and additional water tankers joining the response on Sunday.

By Monday, much of the visible fire had been extinguished. That did not end the operation. Smoke was still coming from parts of the northern and northeastern waste piles, where steep terrain made it difficult to reach buried hotspots. Bali Post reported that responders used roughly 70,000 litres of water during the 26 October operation and intended to resume work at 8 am on 27 October. That was a plan, not confirmation that the site would be clear by then.

Local emergency officials said wind could expose embers inside the pile, while flammable gas might allow ignition to recur. These were possible explanations given during the response; the exact cause of this particular fire had not been established in the reports reviewed.

Health teams visit homes affected by the smoke

Smoke drifted into the Sente hamlet over the weekend and disrupted everyday activities. Klungkung's health department, working through the Dawan I community health centre, sent a mobile team to check residents and distribute masks. Local reports said 25 people had been examined and 250 masks distributed. No serious health complaints had been identified among those examined at that stage.

The figure describes the people seen by the team, not everyone exposed. The available incident reports did not provide air-monitoring results, pollutant concentrations or a defined smoke boundary. It would therefore be premature to claim either that the wider neighbourhood was safe or that residents had suffered a particular toxic exposure.

For households closest to the landfill, reducing time in visibly smoky areas and following local health and emergency updates are sensible immediate precautions. Anyone developing symptoms should seek medical advice. The incident is geographically specific: the reported residential disruption was around Sente in Pikat, not across Bali as a whole.

Closure in January left a legacy of buried waste

Sente stopped receiving new waste at the end of January 2026, according to earlier local reporting. Old rubbish remained on the site. In August, Klungkung's environmental agency had already flagged the potential for fires in the mound because of methane produced by decomposing waste.

That history gives the October incident significance beyond the days spent putting out flames. Residents considering a longer stay nearby will want to know when smoke has fully stopped and how the site will be monitored afterward. As of 26 October, firefighting and cooling were still underway; a completed clean-up or measured improvement in air quality had not been documented in the reporting available.