Idiofa fire, 5 August 2020 Idiofa, Bulungu
The fire started on 5 August 2020 in Idiofa, Congo - Kinshasa, and satellites saw it burning for 8 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 6,044 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 179th largest in Kwilu since 2016 (of 236 with a page). Number 113 in Congo - Kinshasa in 2020, of 165.
- Burnt area
- 6,044ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 8days
- 5 Aug 2020 – 12 Aug 2020
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- territories
- Started on
- 5 Aug
- 2020
- Heat detections
- 296
- in a single hotspot: 167 MW
- Danger at start
- 28
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 4.2GW
- 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 18 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.0 mm on 15 Aug.
This area had burned before
83% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,597 ha in 2016, 2,106 ha in 2017, 4,509 ha in 2019. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 4,990 ha that had burned before.
What happened to each town
-
Idiofa where it started5,685 ha reached on 31 Jul0.3 %
-
395 ha reached on 31 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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5 Aug | 32.3 °C | 41 % | 32 km/h | 0.2 mm | High 28 |
| 6 Aug | 33.4 °C | 39 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 7 Aug | 33.1 °C | 38 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 8 Aug | 32.9 °C | 39 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 9 Aug | 34.9 °C | 33 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 10 Aug | 33.0 °C | 38 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 11 Aug | 33.8 °C | 38 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 12 Aug | 33.3 °C | 42 % | 29 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 30 |
| 13 Aug after | 33.7 °C | 39 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 14 Aug after | 31.3 °C | 47 % | 24 km/h | 0.3 mm | High 27 |
| 15 Aug after | 31.3 °C | 51 % | 28 km/h | 1.0 mm | Moderate 16 |
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 · 296Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 22,985 haIdiofa2 August 2024 · 15 days · 10 km away
- 16,773 haIdiofa19 July 2016 · 20 days · 25 km away
- 24,942 haIdiofa9 August 2026 · 20 days · 27 km away
- 28,229 haBulungu27 July 2020 · 23 days · 33 km away
- 26,939 haIdiofa8 August 2026 · 21 days · 37 km away
- 51,190 haBulungu27 July 2020 · 21 days · 38 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Idiofa fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 5 August 2020 and 12 August 2020: 8 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 6,044 hectares (60.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Idiofa (5,685 ha, 0.3 %); Bulungu (395 ha, 0.0 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 34.9 °C, humidity dropped to 33 % and gusts hit 32 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 30, 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.