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Bukama fire, 5 August 2026 Bukama

Out · last detection 25 Aug 2026, 11:38 UTC

The fire started on 5 August 2026 in Bukama, Congo - Kinshasa, and satellites saw it burning for 20 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,727 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 118th largest in Haut-Lomami since 2016 (of 172 with a page). Number 406 in Congo - Kinshasa in 2026, of 523.

The power measured by the satellite is low (20.2 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.

Burnt area
5,727ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
20days
5 Aug 2026 – 24 Aug 2026
Municipalities hit
1
territories
Started on
5 Aug
2026
Heat detections
95
in a single hotspot: 20 MW
Danger at start
38
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
411MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

25 Aug 2026
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 5 Aug24 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

5678101214151617181920222425

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

The weather it burned in

34°high
32km/h · peak gust
20%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

55% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,368 ha in 2016, 632 ha in 2017, 559 ha in 2019, 440 ha in 2020, 821 ha in 2021. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 3,151 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Bukama where it started
    5,763 ha reached on 5 Aug
    0.3 %

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)
5 Aug 32.3 °C 25 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
6 Aug 32.6 °C 28 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
7 Aug 32.9 °C 30 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
8 Aug 33.1 °C 31 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
9 Aug 32.5 °C 35 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
10 Aug 33.0 °C 29 % 18 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
11 Aug 32.4 °C 30 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
12 Aug 32.3 °C 34 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
13 Aug 33.2 °C 25 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
14 Aug 32.2 °C 30 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
15 Aug 31.7 °C 23 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
16 Aug 31.9 °C 22 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
17 Aug 32.5 °C 21 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
18 Aug 32.8 °C 22 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
19 Aug 32.9 °C 20 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
20 Aug 32.4 °C 20 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
21 Aug 32.3 °C 24 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
22 Aug 33.4 °C 23 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
23 Aug 33.9 °C 24 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
24 Aug 33.9 °C 28 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
25 Aug after 33.9 °C 30 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
26 Aug after 34.3 °C 31 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
27 Aug after 34.7 °C 28 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
28 Aug after 33.7 °C 29 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
29 Aug after 33.9 °C 26 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
30 Aug after 34.4 °C 24 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
31 Aug after 34.1 °C 27 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
1 Sept after 35.6 °C 25 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
2 Sept after 35.2 °C 26 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
3 Sept after 34.9 °C 27 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 29 Jul 2026
After · 31 Aug 2026

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 August 2026 the air beside the fire reached 78 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 65: 4.3 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak78 µg/m³
Days over the guideline25 days
PM1081 µg/m³
Optical depth1.47
3456789101112131415161718192021222324252627
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 · 95Every 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 timeSatelliteFRP (MW)LatLon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Congo - Kinshasa ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Bukama fire last?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 5 August 2026 to 24 August 2026 (20 days). The perimeter dates it from 12 August 2026 to 24 August 2026.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 5,727 hectares (57.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Bukama (5,763 ha, 0.3 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 33.9 °C, humidity dropped to 20 % and gusts hit 32 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 43, class Very 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

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.