Dungu fire, 24 December 2017 Dungu
The fire started on 24 December 2017 in Dungu, Congo - Kinshasa, and satellites saw it burning for 5 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,370 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 90th largest in Upper Uele since 2016 (of 101 with a page). Number 106 in Congo - Kinshasa in 2017, of 138.
- Burnt area
- 5,370ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 5days
- 24 Dec 2017 – 28 Dec 2017
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- territories
- Started on
- 24 Dec
- 2017
- Heat detections
- 136
- in a single hotspot: 120 MW
- Danger at start
- 28
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 2.0GW
- 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 22 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
79% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 4,852 ha in 2016. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 4,255 ha that had burned before.
- 1,600 ha Dungu fire, January 2016 8,874 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 76 ha Dungu fire, January 2016 17,742 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 22 ha Faradje fire, February 2016 5,230 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Dungu where it started5,406 ha reached on 24 Dec0.2 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 24 Dec | 33.2 °C | 25 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 25 Dec | 33.2 °C | 26 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 26 Dec | 34.7 °C | 19 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 27 Dec | 34.0 °C | 22 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 28 Dec | 33.5 °C | 25 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 29 Dec after | 34.2 °C | 23 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 30 Dec after | 33.7 °C | 24 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 31 Dec after | 33.3 °C | 28 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 1 Jan after | 32.7 °C | 20 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 2 Jan after | 31.8 °C | 19 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 3 Jan after | 32.5 °C | 20 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 4 Jan after | 32.8 °C | 18 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 5 Jan after | 32.6 °C | 19 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 6 Jan after | 33.1 °C | 15 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 7 Jan after | 33.8 °C | 15 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
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 · 136Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 44,131 haDungu12 February 2019 · 10 days · 9 km away
- 123,194 haDungu22 January 2020 · 9 days · 14 km away
- 58,675 haDungu13 January 2017 · 8 days · 27 km away
- 58,059 haDungu12 January 2026 · 26 days · 29 km away
- 64,646 haDungu9 January 2025 · 10 days · 33 km away
- 45,193 haDungu9 January 2026 · 18 days · 38 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Dungu fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 24 December 2017 and 28 December 2017: 5 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 5,370 hectares (53.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Dungu (5,406 ha, 0.2 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 34.7 °C, humidity dropped to 19 % and gusts hit 36 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 30, 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
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.