How long did the Basoko fire last?

GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 28 February 2024 and 2 March 2024: 4 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 12,722 hectares (127.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire entered 2 municipalities: Basoko (11,631 ha, 0.5 %); Bumba (1,178 ha, 0.1 %).

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 39.2 °C, humidity dropped to 25 % and gusts hit 30 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 36, class High.

Where does this data come from?

From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Congo - Kinshasa (geoBoundaries). It is not an official report.

CD · Congo - Kinshasa · 2024-02-28 → 2024-03-02

Basoko fire, 28 February 2024 Basoko, Bumba

Out · last detection 1 Mar 2024, 11:36 UTC

The fire started on 28 February 2024 in Basoko, Congo - Kinshasa, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 12,722 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 7th largest in Tshopo since 2016 (of 29 with a page). Number 22 in Congo - Kinshasa in 2024, of 133.

Burnt area: 12,722ha; GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration: 4days; 28 Feb 2024 – 2 Mar 2024
Municipalities hit: 2; territories
Started on: 28 Feb; 2024
Heat detections: 537; in a single hotspot: 158 MW
Danger at start: 23; High · FWI index
Energy released: 6.5GW; sum of detected power

Play back 1 Mar 2024

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 28 Feb2 Mar

How it evolved, day by day

28291

Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.

The weather it burned in

39°high

30km/h · peak gust

25%lowest humidity

It had gone 10 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 2.8 mm on 19 Mar.

This area had burned before

55% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 648 ha in 2016, 686 ha in 2018, 463 ha in 2019, 5,540 ha in 2020, 1,023 ha in 2021, 855 ha in 2023. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 6,940 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

Basoko where it started

11,631 ha reached on 28 Feb

0.5 %
Bumba

1,178 ha reached on 28 Feb

0.1 %

Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the GWIS perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance is from the town centre to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.

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)
28 Feb	34.5 °C	40 %	25 km/h	0.0 mm	High 23
29 Feb	37.2 °C	34 %	28 km/h	0.8 mm	High 24
1 Mar	35.9 °C	37 %	22 km/h	0.0 mm	High 24
2 Mar	35.7 °C	29 %	29 km/h	0.0 mm	High 28
3 Mar after	36.7 °C	32 %	29 km/h	0.1 mm	High 28
4 Mar after	39.2 °C	25 %	18 km/h	0.0 mm	High 32
5 Mar after	38.9 °C	27 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	High 36
6 Mar after	37.8 °C	25 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	High 34
7 Mar after	36.3 °C	35 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	High 36
8 Mar after	33.3 °C	37 %	23 km/h	0.5 mm	High 29
9 Mar after	37.0 °C	28 %	22 km/h	0.0 mm	High 29
10 Mar after	39.0 °C	27 %	23 km/h	0.3 mm	High 35
11 Mar after	32.3 °C	45 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	High 31
12 Mar after	37.7 °C	34 %	31 km/h	0.1 mm	High 30
13 Mar after	39.0 °C	29 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	High 32
14 Mar after	37.2 °C	35 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	High 35
15 Mar after	34.4 °C	37 %	22 km/h	0.0 mm	High 29
16 Mar after	36.9 °C	35 %	20 km/h	0.0 mm	High 31
17 Mar after	37.7 °C	31 %	22 km/h	0.0 mm	High 30
18 Mar after	38.5 °C	29 %	24 km/h	0.2 mm	High 32
19 Mar after	36.9 °C	37 %	27 km/h	2.8 mm	Moderate 16

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 21 Feb 2024

After · 9 Mar 2024

Before After

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 3 March 2024 the air beside the fire reached 125 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 70: 4.7 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak125 µg/m³

Days over the guideline9 days

PM10177 µg/m³

Optical depth1.75

WHO 15

2627282912345

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 · 537Every 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 time	Satellite	FRP (MW)	Lat	Lon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Congo - Kinshasa ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Basoko fire last?: GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 28 February 2024 and 2 March 2024: 4 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 12,722 hectares (127.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire entered 2 municipalities: Basoko (11,631 ha, 0.5 %); Bumba (1,178 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 39.2 °C, humidity dropped to 25 % and gusts hit 30 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 36, class High.
Where does this data come from?: From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Congo - Kinshasa (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.

Satellite cross-check

NASA FIRMS ↗
GWIS · Copernicus ↗

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.

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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.

Where it burned