In autumn 1997 and spring of 1998, a long draught caused by an extremely strong El Nino-Southern Oszillation Event went along with the worst vegetation fires known in the history of South-East Asia. The fires took place on several islands in the Indonesian archipalgo. Land-clearing operations that ran rapidly out of control due to the strong draught have been identified as one major cause of the disaster. The province worst affected by these fires was East Kalimantan on the island of Borneo. In Samarinda, the capital of East Kalimantan, the German-Indonesian co-operation project IFFM (Integrated Forest Fire Management Project) monitored the spread of the fires using weather satellites. To know the extent of the disaster a study was commissioned by IFFM to Remote Sensing Solutions GmbH (RSS) in Munich, Germany, to compile a map of fire damage to the vegetation using the European Radar Satellite ERS-2. ZEBRIS GIS and Consulting, Munich, cooperated in image processing and GIS integration and produced the maps displayed on these pages.