Feshi fire, 14 July 2025 Feshi, Kasongo-Lunda
The fire started on 14 July 2025 in Feshi, Congo - Kinshasa, and satellites saw it burning for 3 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,386 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 170th largest in Kwango since 2016 (of 219 with a page). Number 105 in Congo - Kinshasa in 2025, of 118.
- Burnt area
- 5,386ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 3days
- 14 Jul 2025 – 16 Jul 2025
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- territories
- Started on
- 14 Jul
- 2025
- Heat detections
- 176
- in a single hotspot: 175 MW
- Danger at start
- 35
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 5.6GW
- 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 33 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
95% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,467 ha in 2016, 1,793 ha in 2017, 1,387 ha in 2018, 373 ha in 2019, 2,212 ha in 2020, 2,441 ha in 2021, 567 ha in 2022, 1,833 ha in 2023, 244 ha in 2024. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 5,112 ha that had burned before.
What happened to each town
-
Feshi where it started4,310 ha reached on 14 Jul0.2 %
-
1,115 ha reached on 14 Jul0.0 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 14 Jul | 30.0 °C | 31 % | 21 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 15 Jul | 29.9 °C | 33 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 16 Jul | 29.4 °C | 34 % | 15 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 17 Jul after | 28.3 °C | 38 % | 21 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 18 Jul after | 29.1 °C | 40 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 19 Jul after | 27.7 °C | 50 % | 21 km/h | 0.8 mm | Moderate 17 |
| 20 Jul after | 31.6 °C | 28 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 21 Jul after | 30.2 °C | 30 % | 24 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 30 |
| 22 Jul after | 28.7 °C | 38 % | 22 km/h | 0.3 mm | High 29 |
| 23 Jul after | 31.1 °C | 30 % | 21 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 24 Jul after | 27.5 °C | 41 % | 16 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 25 Jul after | 29.0 °C | 39 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 26 Jul after | 31.5 °C | 28 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
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 12 July 2025 the air beside the fire reached 78 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 54: 3.6 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 · 176Every 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 Feshi fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 14 July 2025 and 16 July 2025: 3 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 5,386 hectares (53.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Feshi (4,310 ha, 0.2 %); Kasongo-Lunda (1,115 ha, 0.0 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 30.0 °C, humidity dropped to 31 % and gusts hit 21 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 35, 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.