Feshi fire, 3 June 2026 Feshi, Kasongo-Lunda
The fire started on 3 June 2026 in Feshi, Congo - Kinshasa, and satellites saw it burning for 10 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 6,840 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 97th largest in Kwango since 2016 (of 219 with a page). Number 313 in Congo - Kinshasa in 2026, of 523.
- Burnt area
- 6,840ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 10days
- 3 Jun 2026 – 12 Jun 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- territories
- Started on
- 3 Jun
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 183
- in a single hotspot: 178 MW
- Danger at start
- 18
- Moderate · FWI index
- Energy released
- 1.4GW
- 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 13 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 2.1 mm on 21 Jun.
This area had burned before
74% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,868 ha in 2016, 744 ha in 2017, 1,327 ha in 2018, 1,446 ha in 2019, 1,761 ha in 2020, 653 ha in 2021, 2,888 ha in 2022, 58 ha in 2023, 1,670 ha in 2024, 351 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 5,090 ha that had burned before.
What happened to each town
-
Feshi where it started6,449 ha reached on 28 May0.3 %
-
434 ha reached on 1 Jun0.0 %
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 Jun | 31.9 °C | 33 % | 21 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 18 |
| 4 Jun | 31.0 °C | 31 % | 18 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 5 Jun | 30.8 °C | 33 % | 14 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 6 Jun | 31.6 °C | 32 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 7 Jun | 31.3 °C | 37 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 8 Jun | 30.4 °C | 38 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 9 Jun | 32.4 °C | 32 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 10 Jun | 32.0 °C | 30 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 23 |
| 11 Jun | 31.5 °C | 37 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 23 |
| 12 Jun | 30.8 °C | 34 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 23 |
| 13 Jun after | 31.0 °C | 23 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 14 Jun after | 32.1 °C | 24 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 15 Jun after | 30.1 °C | 33 % | 18 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 16 Jun after | 28.3 °C | 44 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 17 Jun after | 29.9 °C | 41 % | 23 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 22 |
| 18 Jun after | 27.5 °C | 52 % | 26 km/h | 0.2 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 19 Jun after | 30.0 °C | 48 % | 23 km/h | 0.1 mm | Moderate 19 |
| 20 Jun after | 32.7 °C | 37 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 23 |
| 21 Jun after | 30.9 °C | 43 % | 27 km/h | 2.1 mm | Low 8 |
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 June 2026 the air beside the fire reached 181 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 120: 8.0 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 · 183Every 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 3 June 2026 and 12 June 2026: 10 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 6,840 hectares (68.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Feshi (6,449 ha, 0.3 %); Kasongo-Lunda (434 ha, 0.0 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 32.4 °C, humidity dropped to 30 % and gusts hit 35 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 24, 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.