Dungu fire, 3 January 2022 Dungu, Faradje
The fire started on 3 January 2022 in Dungu, Congo - Kinshasa, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 7,023 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 59th largest in Upper Uele since 2016 (of 101 with a page). Number 43 in Congo - Kinshasa in 2022, of 106.
- Burnt area
- 7,023ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 6days
- 3 Jan 2022 – 8 Jan 2022
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- territories
- Started on
- 3 Jan
- 2022
- Heat detections
- 225
- in a single hotspot: 74 MW
- Danger at start
- 32
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 1.5GW
- 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 7 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 2.3 mm on 13 Jan.
This area had burned before
100% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 3,182 ha in 2016, 7,487 ha in 2017, 82 ha in 2018, 5,821 ha in 2019, 5,150 ha in 2020, 2,179 ha in 2021. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 7,029 ha that had burned before.
- 5,821 ha Faradje fire, January 2019 80,671 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 5,150 ha Dungu fire, January 2020 123,194 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 4,765 ha Dungu fire, December 2017 16,567 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,714 ha Dungu fire, January 2017 38,040 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 82 ha Dungu fire, January 2018 5,793 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 36 ha Dungu fire, January 2016 38,657 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 8 ha Faradje fire, January 2017 22,039 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Dungu where it started6,780 ha reached on 3 Jan0.2 %
-
292 ha reached on 3 Jan0.0 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 Jan | 33.7 °C | 17 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 4 Jan | 31.8 °C | 18 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 5 Jan | 31.8 °C | 20 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 6 Jan | 34.7 °C | 20 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 7 Jan | 33.8 °C | 24 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 8 Jan | 34.7 °C | 22 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 9 Jan after | 34.6 °C | 22 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 10 Jan after | 35.4 °C | 20 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 11 Jan after | 34.5 °C | 23 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 12 Jan after | 35.6 °C | 19 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 13 Jan after | 32.8 °C | 35 % | 31 km/h | 2.3 mm | Moderate 14 |
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 · 225Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 58,059 haDungu12 January 2026 · 26 days · 3 km away
- 43,011 haDungu1 February 2024 · 10 days · 14 km away
- 38,657 haDungu2 January 2016 · 13 days · 18 km away
- 123,194 haDungu22 January 2020 · 9 days · 22 km away
- 80,671 haFaradjeJanuary 2019 · 19 days · 29 km away
- 44,131 haDungu12 February 2019 · 10 days · 37 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Dungu fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 3 January 2022 and 8 January 2022: 6 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 7,023 hectares (70.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Dungu (6,780 ha, 0.2 %); Faradje (292 ha, 0.0 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 34.7 °C, humidity dropped to 17 % and gusts hit 45 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.