Bulungu fire, 27 July 2026 Bulungu, Idiofa
The fire started on 27 July 2026 in Bulungu, Democratic Republic of the Congo, and satellites saw it burning for 50 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 305,095 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
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:
- 53,634 haBulungu1 August 2026 · 27 days
- 27,007 haBulungu3 August 2026 · 26 days
- 26,939 haIdiofa5 August 2026 · 24 days
- 24,942 haIdiofa2 August 2026 · 34 days
- 18,892 haIdiofa9 August 2026 · 20 days
- 16,677 haBulungu1 August 2026 · 28 days
- 15,974 haIdiofa27 July 2026 · 37 days
- 10,902 haIdiofa6 August 2026 · 28 days
It is the largest fire in Kwilu since 2016 (of 235 with a page). The largest in Democratic Republic of the Congo in 2026, of 523.
Compare with…
- Burnt area
- 305,095ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 50days
- 27 Jul 2026 – 14 Sept 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- territories
- Started on
- 27 Jul
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 8,352
- in a single hotspot: 271 MW
- Danger at start
- 28
- High · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 2.8GW
- detected power per day, on average
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 35 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.9 mm on 15 Sept.
This area had burned before
84% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 103,210 ha in 2016, 73,096 ha in 2017, 53,521 ha in 2018, 84,830 ha in 2019, 157,673 ha in 2020, 42,613 ha in 2021, 73,760 ha in 2022, 57,117 ha in 2023, 123,786 ha in 2024, 113,347 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 255,422 ha that had burned before.
- 39,213 ha Bulungu fire, July 2020 51,190 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 25,401 ha Bulungu fire, July 2020 28,229 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 22,355 ha Bulungu fire, July 2024 27,258 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 16,778 ha Idiofa fire, August 2024 22,985 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 16,693 ha Bulungu fire, July 2016 21,735 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 13,922 ha Bulungu fire, August 2019 15,759 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 11,874 ha Bulungu fire, July 2024 12,531 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 10,958 ha Bulungu fire, August 2020 12,246 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
How big is it?
London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).
Paris boundary: geoBoundaries · Institut national de l'information géographique et forestière (IGN-F) (Etalab Open License 2.0).
Madrid boundary: geoBoundaries · Open Data ESRI, IGN Central Registry of Cartography Area (CC BY 4.0).
Berlin boundary: geoBoundaries · Federal Agency for Cartography and Geodesy (dl-de/by-2-0).
This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.
What happened to each town
-
Bulungu where it started262,219 ha reached on 27 Jul20 %
-
44,791 ha reached on 27 Jul2.3 %
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 2025Inside the perimeter there were about 639 hectares of built-up land and about 75,000 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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 27 Jul | 34.6 °C | 33 % | 21 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 28 Jul | 32.6 °C | 36 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 29 Jul | 31.9 °C | 41 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 30 Jul | 31.7 °C | 47 % | 31 km/h | 5.0 mm | Low 6 |
| 31 Jul | 29.6 °C | 59 % | 23 km/h | 2.7 mm | Very low 4 |
| 1 Aug | 32.3 °C | 40 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 14 |
| 2 Aug | 32.1 °C | 43 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 18 |
| 3 Aug | 31.6 °C | 44 % | 24 km/h | 0.1 mm | Moderate 18 |
| 4 Aug | 32.7 °C | 45 % | 25 km/h | 0.3 mm | Moderate 19 |
| 5 Aug | 33.6 °C | 35 % | 17 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 6 Aug | 32.8 °C | 38 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 23 |
| 7 Aug | 30.2 °C | 53 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 8 Aug | 32.6 °C | 45 % | 23 km/h | 0.8 mm | Moderate 17 |
| 9 Aug | 32.2 °C | 47 % | 21 km/h | 0.5 mm | Moderate 18 |
| 10 Aug | 32.8 °C | 44 % | 23 km/h | 0.3 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 11 Aug | 31.9 °C | 47 % | 24 km/h | 0.3 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 12 Aug | 34.3 °C | 38 % | 19 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 23 |
| 13 Aug | 34.5 °C | 41 % | 23 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 24 |
| 14 Aug | 32.7 °C | 46 % | 24 km/h | 0.6 mm | Moderate 18 |
| 15 Aug | 32.9 °C | 40 % | 19 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 16 Aug | 33.1 °C | 37 % | 22 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 24 |
| 17 Aug | 34.2 °C | 33 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 18 Aug | 33.2 °C | 35 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 19 Aug | 33.6 °C | 34 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 20 Aug | 33.4 °C | 36 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 21 Aug | 33.3 °C | 38 % | 22 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 28 |
| 22 Aug | 33.7 °C | 47 % | 25 km/h | 4.5 mm | Low 6 |
| 23 Aug | 33.6 °C | 48 % | 23 km/h | 1.8 mm | Low 8 |
| 24 Aug | 33.3 °C | 40 % | 21 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 18 |
| 25 Aug | 34.3 °C | 42 % | 23 km/h | 0.2 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 26 Aug | 32.7 °C | 48 % | 19 km/h | 2.7 mm | Low 7 |
| 27 Aug | 36.9 °C | 32 % | 21 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 21 |
| 28 Aug | 33.6 °C | 46 % | 32 km/h | 12.2 mm | Very low 3 |
| 29 Aug | 28.9 °C | 61 % | 27 km/h | 1.3 mm | Very low 4 |
| 30 Aug | 33.1 °C | 46 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 11 |
| 31 Aug | 32.0 °C | 52 % | 26 km/h | 0.4 mm | Moderate 12 |
| 1 Sept | 36.0 °C | 38 % | 22 km/h | 0.4 mm | Moderate 18 |
| 2 Sept | 34.4 °C | 46 % | 20 km/h | 1.9 mm | Low 8 |
| 3 Sept | 28.8 °C | 62 % | 34 km/h | 4.9 mm | Very low 2 |
| 4 Sept | 34.1 °C | 42 % | 22 km/h | 0.2 mm | Low 9 |
| 5 Sept | 34.2 °C | 45 % | 25 km/h | 0.4 mm | Moderate 13 |
| 6 Sept | 33.4 °C | 48 % | 19 km/h | 1.5 mm | Low 7 |
| 7 Sept | 32.4 °C | 54 % | 27 km/h | 4.7 mm | Very low 2 |
| 8 Sept | 32.6 °C | 48 % | 23 km/h | 0.1 mm | Low 8 |
| 9 Sept | 33.3 °C | 45 % | 26 km/h | 0.8 mm | Low 11 |
| 10 Sept | 32.7 °C | 47 % | 24 km/h | 3.2 mm | Very low 3 |
| 11 Sept | 31.2 °C | 54 % | 23 km/h | 8.9 mm | Very low 1 |
| 12 Sept | 32.6 °C | 47 % | 27 km/h | 0.1 mm | Very low 5 |
| 13 Sept | 32.0 °C | 52 % | 26 km/h | 0.3 mm | Low 8 |
| 14 Sept | 33.4 °C | 48 % | 20 km/h | 0.3 mm | Low 9 |
| 15 Sept after | 33.6 °C | 49 % | 23 km/h | 1.9 mm | Very low 5 |
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.
The smoke
CAMS · CopernicusOn 19 August 2026 the air beside the fire reached 542 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 324: 22 times the WHO daily guideline (15).
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 · 8,352Every 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?
- According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 27 July 2026 to 14 September 2026 (50 days). The perimeter dates it from 3 August 2026 to 13 September 2026.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 305,095 hectares (3,051.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Bulungu (262,219 ha, 20 %); Idiofa (44,791 ha, 2.3 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 36.9 °C, humidity dropped to 32 % and gusts hit 34 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 29, 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
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.
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
How we know this
- Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery; 8 polygons grouped in this page.
- Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 3 August 2026 to 13 September 2026. 8,352 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.
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.