How long did the Bukama fire last?

According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 12 August 2026 to 7 October 2026 (57 days). The perimeter dates it from 19 August 2026 to 2 October 2026.

How much area did it burn?

The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 6,938 hectares (69.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire only entered Bukama (6,970 ha, 0.4 %).

Is the Bukama fire still active?

No fire detections since 7 Oct 2026, 11:34 UTC. A lack of detections is not an official extinction.

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 34.2 °C, humidity dropped to 31 % and gusts hit 39 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 32, class High.

Where does this data come from?

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

CD · Democratic Republic of the Congo · 2026-08-12 → 2026-10-07

Bukama fire, 12 August 2026 Bukama

Out · last detection 7 Oct 2026, 11:34 UTC

The fire started on 12 August 2026 in Bukama, Democratic Republic of the Congo, and satellites saw it burning for 57 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 6,938 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

This page is probably a fire complex, not a single fire. GWIS merges into one perimeter the fires that touch over weeks, which in large burning seasons can join dozens of separate fires. The total area is reliable; the origin and dates refer to the whole complex.

Other fire pages in the same area and on the same dates:

10,558 haMalemba-Nkulu7 August 2026 · 44 days

It is the 65th largest in Haut-Lomami since 2016 (of 172 with a page). Number 307 in Democratic Republic of the Congo in 2026, of 523.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Malemba-Nkulu · 2026 Bukama · 2025

Burnt area: 6,938ha; GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration: 57days; 12 Aug 2026 – 7 Oct 2026
Municipalities hit: 1; territories
Started on: 12 Aug; 2026
Heat detections: 384; in a single hotspot: 36 MW
Danger at start: 18; Moderate · FWI index
Average daily power: 60MW; detected power per day, on average

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 12 Aug7 Oct

Play back 7 Oct 2026

How it evolved, day by day

12 Aug 21 Aug 29 Aug 6 Sept 14 Sept 23 Sept 25 Sept 6 Oct

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

39km/h · peak gust

31%lowest humidity

It had gone 25 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 12.1 mm on 8 Oct.

This area had burned before

62% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,517 ha in 2020, 1,082 ha in 2021, 1,004 ha in 2022, 4,221 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 4,294 ha that had burned before.

How big is it?

It burned the equivalent of 4.4% of the area of London (69 km² against 1,583 km²).

London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).

This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.

What happened to each town

Bukama where it started

6,970 ha reached on 12 Aug

0.4 %

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

People and buildings inside the perimeter

GHSL 2025

Built-up area1.4 ha

Residents≈ 600

Inside the perimeter there were about 1.4 hectares of built-up land and about 600 residents (GHSL 2025, satellite-based estimate).

This is an estimate on 100 m cells, made from satellite imagery and census data: it does not mean that homes burned or that anyone was harmed. The perimeter also contains land that never burned. The GHSL 2025 epoch is a projection made from 2020 and earlier data.

Source: Global Human Settlement Layer (GHS-BUILT-S and GHS-POP R2023A), European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC), © European Union, CC BY 4.0. Sum inside the perimeter computed by WorldFires. human-settlement.emergency.copernicus.eu

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)
12 Aug	31.0 °C	46 %	18 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 18
13 Aug	32.2 °C	38 %	23 km/h	0.0 mm	High 23
14 Aug	29.8 °C	43 %	19 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 21
15 Aug	30.3 °C	37 %	23 km/h	0.0 mm	High 23
16 Aug	29.6 °C	33 %	19 km/h	0.0 mm	High 22
17 Aug	29.9 °C	33 %	20 km/h	0.0 mm	High 23
18 Aug	29.8 °C	35 %	22 km/h	0.0 mm	High 25
19 Aug	29.9 °C	35 %	18 km/h	0.0 mm	High 24
20 Aug	29.8 °C	31 %	21 km/h	0.0 mm	High 28
21 Aug	29.7 °C	33 %	16 km/h	0.0 mm	High 23
22 Aug	30.1 °C	42 %	19 km/h	0.0 mm	High 27
23 Aug	30.5 °C	43 %	16 km/h	0.0 mm	High 24
24 Aug	31.3 °C	41 %	17 km/h	0.0 mm	High 26
25 Aug	31.2 °C	42 %	15 km/h	0.0 mm	High 25
26 Aug	32.0 °C	48 %	20 km/h	0.0 mm	High 25
27 Aug	32.9 °C	41 %	24 km/h	0.0 mm	High 24
28 Aug	32.9 °C	37 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	High 30
29 Aug	32.0 °C	38 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	High 31
30 Aug	33.5 °C	35 %	15 km/h	0.0 mm	High 26
31 Aug	33.7 °C	35 %	23 km/h	0.0 mm	High 32
1 Sept	33.3 °C	39 %	25 km/h	0.0 mm	High 31
2 Sept	32.9 °C	37 %	18 km/h	0.0 mm	High 29
3 Sept	33.9 °C	35 %	17 km/h	0.0 mm	High 28
4 Sept	31.8 °C	49 %	19 km/h	0.0 mm	High 26
5 Sept	30.0 °C	52 %	29 km/h	0.6 mm	High 25
6 Sept	31.5 °C	38 %	25 km/h	0.0 mm	High 29
7 Sept	33.8 °C	41 %	20 km/h	0.0 mm	High 25
8 Sept	31.9 °C	40 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	High 31
9 Sept	31.7 °C	40 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	High 30
10 Sept	31.9 °C	38 %	17 km/h	0.0 mm	High 26
11 Sept	33.2 °C	37 %	22 km/h	0.0 mm	High 29
12 Sept	32.5 °C	39 %	17 km/h	0.0 mm	High 29
13 Sept	32.2 °C	40 %	14 km/h	0.0 mm	High 26
14 Sept	32.9 °C	44 %	18 km/h	0.0 mm	High 28
15 Sept	32.0 °C	47 %	19 km/h	0.4 mm	High 26
16 Sept	32.8 °C	39 %	21 km/h	0.1 mm	High 27
17 Sept	31.0 °C	51 %	19 km/h	0.2 mm	High 24
18 Sept	32.4 °C	41 %	18 km/h	0.0 mm	High 26
19 Sept	33.0 °C	39 %	26 km/h	0.5 mm	High 32
20 Sept	31.2 °C	47 %	33 km/h	1.9 mm	Moderate 16
21 Sept	31.0 °C	43 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	High 28
22 Sept	31.5 °C	40 %	34 km/h	0.2 mm	High 26
23 Sept	30.7 °C	52 %	39 km/h	2.5 mm	Low 10
24 Sept	32.6 °C	40 %	20 km/h	1.9 mm	Moderate 14
25 Sept	33.2 °C	44 %	17 km/h	0.1 mm	Moderate 20
26 Sept	33.5 °C	38 %	25 km/h	0.0 mm	High 26
27 Sept	30.2 °C	55 %	28 km/h	1.8 mm	Moderate 13
28 Sept	32.4 °C	42 %	16 km/h	0.2 mm	Moderate 19
29 Sept	32.3 °C	47 %	22 km/h	0.4 mm	High 22
30 Sept	30.0 °C	61 %	31 km/h	12.6 mm	Very low 4
1 Oct	30.1 °C	49 %	21 km/h	2.4 mm	Very low 4
2 Oct	31.4 °C	44 %	19 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 13
3 Oct	31.0 °C	48 %	19 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 16
4 Oct	30.5 °C	55 %	32 km/h	2.7 mm	Low 7
5 Oct	31.3 °C	49 %	22 km/h	1.1 mm	Low 9
6 Oct	34.2 °C	37 %	19 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 19
7 Oct	32.3 °C	38 %	30 km/h	1.7 mm	Moderate 14
8 Oct after	30.2 °C	53 %	24 km/h	12.1 mm	Very low 1

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 5 Aug 2026

After · 14 Oct 2026

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 4 September 2026 the air beside the fire reached 103 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 81: 5.4 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak103 µg/m³

Days over the guideline62 days

PM10106 µg/m³

Optical depth1.57

WHO 15

1011121314151617181920212223242526272829303112345678910111213141516171819202122232425262728293012345678910

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 · 384Every 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 Democratic Republic of the Congo ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Bukama fire last?: According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 12 August 2026 to 7 October 2026 (57 days). The perimeter dates it from 19 August 2026 to 2 October 2026.
How much area did it burn?: The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 6,938 hectares (69.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire only entered Bukama (6,970 ha, 0.4 %).
Is the Bukama fire still active?: No fire detections since 7 Oct 2026, 11:34 UTC. A lack of detections is not an official extinction.
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 34.2 °C, humidity dropped to 31 % and gusts hit 39 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 32, class High.
Where does this data come from?: From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Democratic Republic of the Congo (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 ↗

History of this page Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.

No changes since 24 October 2026.

RSS Changes to this page

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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What do you think is wrong?

Dates or duration Place or towns Burned area Name It was not a wildfire Same fire as another page Something else

What really happened?

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How we know this

Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery.
Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 19 August 2026 to 2 October 2026. 384 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
We have not matched this page with any official record.
Weather: Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, in cells of about 25 km.
Built-up area and population come from the JRC Global Human Settlement Layer (epoch 2025, 100 m cells), summed inside the perimeter: an estimate of what was there, not a damage count.

How we build fire pages: methodology ›

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