Idiofa fire, 12 August 2026 Idiofa
The fire started on 12 August 2026 in Idiofa, Democratic Republic of the Congo, and satellites saw it burning for 22 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 7,642 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 119th largest in Kwilu since 2016 (of 236 with a page). Number 269 in Democratic Republic of the Congo in 2026, of 523.
- Burnt area
- 7,642ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 22days
- 12 Aug 2026 – 2 Sept 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- territories
- Started on
- 12 Aug
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 178
- in a single hotspot: 104 MW
- Danger at start
- 22
- High · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 121MW
- detected power per day, on average
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 3 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 5.3 mm on 3 Sept.
This area had burned before
93% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,652 ha in 2016, 2,072 ha in 2017, 1,403 ha in 2018, 4,097 ha in 2019, 3,704 ha in 2020, 1,259 ha in 2021, 2,502 ha in 2022, 934 ha in 2023, 2,587 ha in 2024, 2,349 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 7,083 ha that had burned before.
What happened to each town
-
Idiofa where it started7,693 ha reached on 12 Aug0.4 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 12 Aug | 34.0 °C | 40 % | 20 km/h | 0.2 mm | High 22 |
| 13 Aug | 34.3 °C | 42 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 14 Aug | 32.7 °C | 46 % | 23 km/h | 0.6 mm | Moderate 19 |
| 15 Aug | 32.8 °C | 40 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 21 |
| 16 Aug | 33.2 °C | 36 % | 20 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 25 |
| 17 Aug | 34.2 °C | 33 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 18 Aug | 33.1 °C | 36 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 19 Aug | 33.6 °C | 34 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 20 Aug | 32.6 °C | 39 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 21 Aug | 32.9 °C | 38 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 22 Aug | 33.3 °C | 49 % | 27 km/h | 4.2 mm | Low 6 |
| 23 Aug | 33.1 °C | 52 % | 23 km/h | 1.3 mm | Low 9 |
| 24 Aug | 32.9 °C | 42 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 18 |
| 25 Aug | 34.0 °C | 44 % | 23 km/h | 0.2 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 26 Aug | 31.9 °C | 53 % | 24 km/h | 1.6 mm | Low 10 |
| 27 Aug | 36.8 °C | 33 % | 21 km/h | 0.6 mm | High 24 |
| 28 Aug | 33.5 °C | 48 % | 32 km/h | 14.0 mm | Very low 4 |
| 29 Aug | 29.1 °C | 59 % | 27 km/h | 1.5 mm | Very low 5 |
| 30 Aug | 32.9 °C | 47 % | 22 km/h | 0.2 mm | Moderate 12 |
| 31 Aug | 32.0 °C | 52 % | 27 km/h | 0.5 mm | Moderate 14 |
| 1 Sept | 35.6 °C | 39 % | 21 km/h | 0.2 mm | Moderate 19 |
| 2 Sept | 33.9 °C | 49 % | 20 km/h | 1.4 mm | Low 11 |
| 3 Sept after | 29.0 °C | 62 % | 35 km/h | 5.3 mm | Very low 3 |
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 542 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 324: 22 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 · 178Every 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?
- According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 12 August 2026 to 2 September 2026 (22 days). The perimeter dates it from 12 August 2026 to 26 August 2026.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 7,642 hectares (76.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Idiofa (7,693 ha, 0.4 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 36.8 °C, humidity dropped to 33 % and gusts hit 32 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 Democratic Republic of the Congo (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.