Faradje fire, January 2019 Dungu, Faradje
The fire started on 8 January 2019 in Faradje, Congo - Kinshasa, and satellites saw it burning for 19 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 80,671 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 2th largest in Upper Uele since 2016 (of 101 with a page). The largest in Congo - Kinshasa in 2019, of 115.
- Burnt area
- 80,671ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 19days
- 8 Jan 2019 – 26 Jan 2019
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- territories
- Started on
- 8 Jan
- 2019
- Heat detections
- 2,506
- in a single hotspot: 273 MW
- Danger at start
- 26
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 41.3GW
- 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.
This area had burned before
88% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 38,052 ha in 2016, 60,916 ha in 2017, 22,210 ha in 2018. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 70,595 ha that had burned before.
- 20,653 ha Dungu fire, January 2017 38,040 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 14,302 ha Dungu fire, January 2016 38,657 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 13,031 ha Faradje fire, January 2017 22,039 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 12,652 ha Dungu fire, December 2017 16,567 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,640 ha Yei fire, January 2017 5,929 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,012 ha Dungu fire, January 2018 5,793 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,817 ha Faradje fire, January 2018 6,342 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 821 ha Dungu fire, January 2016 5,919 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
50,134 ha reached on 15 Jan1.5 %
-
Faradje where it started27,801 ha reached on 8 Jan2.2 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8 Jan | 33.2 °C | 22 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 9 Jan | 33.8 °C | 20 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 10 Jan | 34.1 °C | 20 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 11 Jan | 34.5 °C | 21 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 12 Jan | 35.6 °C | 17 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 13 Jan | 34.9 °C | 16 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 14 Jan | 34.6 °C | 21 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 15 Jan | 32.8 °C | 31 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 16 Jan | 31.8 °C | 36 % | 41 km/h | 1.3 mm | Moderate 19 |
| 17 Jan | 33.1 °C | 26 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 18 Jan | 33.3 °C | 21 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 19 Jan | 34.0 °C | 22 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 20 Jan | 33.6 °C | 21 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 21 Jan | 35.0 °C | 18 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 22 Jan | 35.0 °C | 15 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 23 Jan | 34.8 °C | 15 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 24 Jan | 35.4 °C | 15 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 25 Jan | 36.1 °C | 18 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 26 Jan | 35.5 °C | 21 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 27 Jan after | 34.6 °C | 25 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 28 Jan after | 35.7 °C | 23 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 29 Jan after | 34.0 °C | 37 % | 35 km/h | 0.7 mm | High 28 |
| 30 Jan after | 32.9 °C | 33 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 31 Jan after | 34.9 °C | 19 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 1 Feb after | 36.2 °C | 16 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 2 Feb after | 37.0 °C | 15 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 3 Feb after | 35.9 °C | 18 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 4 Feb after | 35.5 °C | 19 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 5 Feb after | 36.5 °C | 19 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
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 · 2,506Every 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 Faradje fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 8 January 2019 and 26 January 2019: 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 80,671 hectares (806.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Dungu (50,134 ha, 1.5 %); Faradje (27,801 ha, 2.2 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 36.1 °C, humidity dropped to 15 % and gusts hit 41 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.