Bulungu fire, 19 July 2016 Bulungu, Idiofa
The fire started on 19 July 2016 in Bulungu, Congo - Kinshasa, and satellites saw it burning for 19 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 7,978 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 106th largest in Kwilu since 2016 (of 236 with a page). Number 47 in Congo - Kinshasa in 2016, of 153.
- Burnt area
- 7,978ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 19days
- 19 Jul 2016 – 6 Aug 2016
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- territories
- Started on
- 19 Jul
- 2016
- Heat detections
- 425
- in a single hotspot: 162 MW
- Danger at start
- 30
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 6.5GW
- sum of detected power
Where it burned
How it evolved, day by day
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
It had gone 19 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 2.7 mm on 10 Aug.
This area had burned before
No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.
What happened to each town
-
Bulungu where it started7,173 ha reached on 13 Jul0.5 %
-
858 ha reached on 13 Jul0.0 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 19 Jul | 33.4 °C | 32 % | 31 km/h | 0.2 mm | High 30 |
| 20 Jul | 32.3 °C | 35 % | 24 km/h | 0.6 mm | High 25 |
| 21 Jul | 32.3 °C | 31 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 22 Jul | 31.9 °C | 35 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 23 Jul | 33.3 °C | 34 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 24 Jul | 31.0 °C | 42 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 25 Jul | 31.1 °C | 42 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 26 Jul | 31.8 °C | 38 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 27 Jul | 32.7 °C | 36 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 28 Jul | 32.8 °C | 39 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 29 Jul | 34.4 °C | 35 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 30 Jul | 31.9 °C | 41 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 31 Jul | 31.5 °C | 42 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 1 Aug | 35.9 °C | 26 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 2 Aug | 34.9 °C | 28 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 3 Aug | 35.2 °C | 24 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 4 Aug | 34.5 °C | 29 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 5 Aug | 35.1 °C | 25 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 6 Aug | 35.1 °C | 17 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 7 Aug after | 35.2 °C | 22 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 8 Aug after | 30.7 °C | 43 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 9 Aug after | 33.4 °C | 38 % | 25 km/h | 0.4 mm | High 28 |
| 10 Aug after | 32.5 °C | 44 % | 23 km/h | 2.7 mm | Low 10 |
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
If the day is cloudy, change the date: each satellite passes once a day. In false colour the burnt ground looks brown or red.
Detections table · 425Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Bulungu fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 19 July 2016 and 6 August 2016: 19 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 7,978 hectares (79.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Bulungu (7,173 ha, 0.5 %); Idiofa (858 ha, 0.0 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 35.9 °C, humidity dropped to 17 % and gusts hit 33 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 40, 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.
Report an error
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.