Idiofa fire, 2 August 2026 Idiofa, Bulungu
The fire started on 2 August 2026 in Idiofa, Congo - Kinshasa, and satellites saw it burning for 11 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,311 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 219th largest in Kwilu since 2016 (of 236 with a page). Number 474 in Congo - Kinshasa in 2026, of 523.
- Burnt area
- 5,311ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 11days
- 2 Aug 2026 – 12 Aug 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- territories
- Started on
- 2 Aug
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 95
- in a single hotspot: 34 MW
- Danger at start
- 8
- Low · FWI index
- Energy released
- 469MW
- 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 7 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 10.6 mm on 28 Aug.
This area had burned before
86% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,330 ha in 2016, 2,166 ha in 2017, 1,993 ha in 2018, 2,170 ha in 2019, 2,441 ha in 2020, 2,283 ha in 2021, 2,056 ha in 2022, 2,679 ha in 2023, 902 ha in 2024, 2,011 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 4,574 ha that had burned before.
What happened to each town
-
Idiofa where it started5,212 ha reached on 30 Jul0.3 %
-
132 ha reached on 11 Aug0.0 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 30 Jul | 31.2 °C | 52 % | 30 km/h | 2.6 mm | Low 8 |
| 31 Jul | 30.4 °C | 58 % | 22 km/h | 3.2 mm | Very low 5 |
| 1 Aug | 32.5 °C | 41 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 16 |
| 2 Aug | 32.3 °C | 44 % | 23 km/h | 0.2 mm | Moderate 19 |
| 3 Aug | 32.2 °C | 45 % | 23 km/h | 0.2 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 4 Aug | 32.4 °C | 47 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 5 Aug | 34.1 °C | 34 % | 18 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 6 Aug | 32.5 °C | 43 % | 28 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 26 |
| 7 Aug | 30.8 °C | 56 % | 28 km/h | 0.5 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 8 Aug | 33.1 °C | 45 % | 22 km/h | 0.2 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 9 Aug | 33.5 °C | 43 % | 22 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 22 |
| 10 Aug | 33.5 °C | 42 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 23 |
| 11 Aug | 31.7 °C | 49 % | 27 km/h | 0.5 mm | High 23 |
| 12 Aug | 35.0 °C | 37 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 13 Aug after | 35.4 °C | 38 % | 23 km/h | 0.2 mm | High 26 |
| 14 Aug after | 33.5 °C | 44 % | 25 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 26 |
| 15 Aug after | 33.2 °C | 39 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 16 Aug after | 33.8 °C | 37 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 17 Aug after | 34.5 °C | 33 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 18 Aug after | 33.8 °C | 34 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 19 Aug after | 34.4 °C | 31 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 20 Aug after | 33.4 °C | 39 % | 29 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 31 |
| 21 Aug after | 34.2 °C | 36 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 22 Aug after | 34.5 °C | 46 % | 27 km/h | 0.6 mm | High 25 |
| 23 Aug after | 33.7 °C | 49 % | 26 km/h | 0.5 mm | High 23 |
| 24 Aug after | 34.1 °C | 37 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 25 Aug after | 35.2 °C | 39 % | 23 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 27 |
| 26 Aug after | 33.3 °C | 45 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 27 Aug after | 38.5 °C | 27 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 28 Aug after | 34.5 °C | 44 % | 34 km/h | 10.6 mm | Low 6 |
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 19 August 2026 the air beside the fire reached 585 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 313: 21 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 · 95Every 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 2 August 2026 and 12 August 2026: 11 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 5,311 hectares (53.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Idiofa (5,212 ha, 0.3 %); Bulungu (132 ha, 0.0 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 35.4 °C, humidity dropped to 31 % and gusts hit 30 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 31, 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.