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Feshi fire, July 2016 Kahemba, Feshi

Out · last detection 19 Jul 2016, 12:37 UTC

The fire started on 14 July 2016 in Feshi, Congo - Kinshasa, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 6,213 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 117th largest in Kwango since 2016 (of 219 with a page). Number 89 in Congo - Kinshasa in 2016, of 153.

Burnt area
6,213ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
6days
14 Jul 2016 – 19 Jul 2016
Municipalities hit
2
territories
Started on
14 Jul
2016
Heat detections
168
in a single hotspot: 390 MW
Danger at start
44
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
6.5GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

19 Jul 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 14 Jul19 Jul

How it evolved, day by day

141516171819

Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.

The weather it burned in

32°high
38km/h · peak gust
17%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

What happened to each town

  1. Kahemba
    3,292 ha reached on 8 Jul
    0.2 %
  2. Feshi where it started
    2,962 ha reached on 7 Jul
    0.2 %

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)
14 Jul 30.3 °C 19 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
15 Jul 31.4 °C 18 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
16 Jul 30.3 °C 23 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
17 Jul 31.6 °C 20 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
18 Jul 31.5 °C 20 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
19 Jul 31.5 °C 17 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
20 Jul after 31.1 °C 14 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
21 Jul after 31.1 °C 15 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
22 Jul after 31.0 °C 19 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
23 Jul after 31.9 °C 19 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
24 Jul after 31.9 °C 22 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
25 Jul after 30.3 °C 29 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
26 Jul after 31.0 °C 25 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
27 Jul after 31.7 °C 26 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
28 Jul after 30.9 °C 34 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
29 Jul after 32.6 °C 27 % 28 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.

Before · 7 Jul 2016
After · 26 Jul 2016

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 · 168Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
⬇ Download CSV Times in UTC. Each detection is a 375 m pixel: a large fire yields hundreds per pass.
Date and timeSatelliteFRP (MW)LatLon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Congo - Kinshasa ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Feshi fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 14 July 2016 and 19 July 2016: 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 6,213 hectares (62.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Kahemba (3,292 ha, 0.2 %); Feshi (2,962 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 31.6 °C, humidity dropped to 17 % and gusts hit 38 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 44, 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.

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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.