Idiofa fire, 4 August 2024 Idiofa, Gungu
The fire started on 4 August 2024 in Idiofa, Congo - Kinshasa, and satellites saw it burning for 10 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,692 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 198th largest in Kwilu since 2016 (of 236 with a page). Number 103 in Congo - Kinshasa in 2024, of 133.
- Burnt area
- 5,692ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 10days
- 4 Aug 2024 – 13 Aug 2024
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- territories
- Started on
- 4 Aug
- 2024
- Heat detections
- 278
- in a single hotspot: 103 MW
- Danger at start
- 30
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 2.7GW
- 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 more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
93% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 3,869 ha in 2016, 2,702 ha in 2017, 381 ha in 2018, 184 ha in 2019, 3,836 ha in 2020, 1,277 ha in 2021, 143 ha in 2023. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 5,278 ha that had burned before.
What happened to each town
-
Idiofa where it started3,232 ha reached on 30 Jul0.2 %
-
2,500 ha reached on 30 Jul0.2 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4 Aug | 33.2 °C | 37 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 5 Aug | 32.6 °C | 40 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 6 Aug | 34.0 °C | 34 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 7 Aug | 33.5 °C | 35 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 8 Aug | 35.1 °C | 29 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 9 Aug | 34.0 °C | 32 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 10 Aug | 33.8 °C | 41 % | 26 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 30 |
| 11 Aug | 31.6 °C | 49 % | 31 km/h | 0.2 mm | High 27 |
| 12 Aug | 31.7 °C | 43 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 13 Aug | 32.5 °C | 44 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 14 Aug after | 30.0 °C | 51 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 15 Aug after | 32.1 °C | 50 % | 27 km/h | 0.3 mm | High 25 |
| 16 Aug after | 33.2 °C | 43 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 17 Aug after | 31.9 °C | 44 % | 23 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 25 |
| 18 Aug after | 31.4 °C | 44 % | 25 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 26 |
| 19 Aug after | 33.7 °C | 34 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 20 Aug after | 31.7 °C | 43 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 21 Aug after | 32.3 °C | 40 % | 23 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 29 |
| 22 Aug after | 32.9 °C | 41 % | 25 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 30 |
| 23 Aug after | 33.5 °C | 32 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
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 8 August 2024 the air beside the fire reached 196 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 143: 9.5 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 · 278Every 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 Idiofa fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 4 August 2024 and 13 August 2024: 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 5,692 hectares (56.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Idiofa (3,232 ha, 0.2 %); Gungu (2,500 ha, 0.2 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 35.1 °C, humidity dropped to 29 % and gusts hit 33 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 33, 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.