Idiofa fire, August 2023 Idiofa
The fire started on 21 August 2023 in Idiofa, Congo - Kinshasa, and satellites saw it burning for 8 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,747 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 194th largest in Kwilu since 2016 (of 236 with a page). Number 47 in Congo - Kinshasa in 2023, of 76.
- Burnt area
- 5,747ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 8days
- 21 Aug 2023 – 28 Aug 2023
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- territories
- Started on
- 21 Aug
- 2023
- Heat detections
- 255
- in a single hotspot: 92 MW
- Danger at start
- 20
- Moderate · FWI index
- Energy released
- 3.7GW
- 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 one day without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 2.9 mm on 29 Aug.
This area had burned before
81% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,882 ha in 2016, 5,011 ha in 2017, 2,407 ha in 2018, 2,588 ha in 2019, 2,976 ha in 2020, 2,395 ha in 2021, 2,246 ha in 2022. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 4,645 ha that had burned before.
What happened to each town
-
Idiofa where it started5,780 ha reached on 14 Aug0.3 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 21 Aug | 34.2 °C | 46 % | 27 km/h | 0.3 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 22 Aug | 34.7 °C | 44 % | 27 km/h | 0.5 mm | High 23 |
| 23 Aug | 35.5 °C | 35 % | 28 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 29 |
| 24 Aug | 32.5 °C | 51 % | 30 km/h | 1.7 mm | Moderate 12 |
| 25 Aug | 33.9 °C | 45 % | 36 km/h | 6.7 mm | Very low 5 |
| 26 Aug | 30.2 °C | 61 % | 28 km/h | 16.1 mm | Very low 1 |
| 27 Aug | 33.1 °C | 49 % | 24 km/h | 0.1 mm | Very low 5 |
| 28 Aug | 32.9 °C | 50 % | 31 km/h | 17.4 mm | Very low 1 |
| 29 Aug after | 30.4 °C | 61 % | 26 km/h | 2.9 mm | Very low 1 |
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 · 255Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 13,718 haIdiofa13 August 2025 · 17 days · 20 km away
- 26,939 haIdiofa5 August 2026 · 24 days · 21 km away
- 18,973 haIdiofa13 August 2025 · 29 days · 23 km away
- 20,145 haIdiofa13 August 2026 · 34 days · 29 km away
- 15,974 haIdiofa27 July 2026 · 37 days · 29 km away
- 16,773 haIdiofa19 July 2016 · 20 days · 38 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Idiofa fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 21 August 2023 and 28 August 2023: 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 5,747 hectares (57.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Idiofa (5,780 ha, 0.3 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 35.5 °C, humidity dropped to 35 % and gusts hit 36 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 29, 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.