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Impfondo fire, 21 August 2021 Impfondo, Louvakou (Loubomo)

Out · last measured on 21 Aug 2021

The fire started on 21 August 2021 in Impfondo, Congo - Brazzaville, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 1,009 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 177th largest in Bouenza since 2016 (of 180 with a page). Number 50 in Congo - Brazzaville in 2021, of 50.

We have the GWIS perimeter for this fire, but the VIIRS sensors did not capture it in enough detail: no day-by-day evolution, but the split by municipality is there.

Burnt area
1,009ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
1day
21 Aug 2021 – 21 Aug 2021
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
21 Aug
2021

Where it burned

This area had burned before

42% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 278 ha in 2016, 304 ha in 2018. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 422 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Impfondo where it started
    917 ha
    0.2 %
  2. Louvakou (Loubomo)
    99 ha
    0.1 %

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.

Before and after, from space

Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.

Before · 14 Aug 2021
After · 28 Aug 2021

If the day is cloudy, change the date: each satellite passes once a day. In false colour the burnt ground looks brown or red.

Other fires nearby

All fires in Congo - Brazzaville ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Impfondo fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 21 August 2021 and 21 August 2021: 1 day 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 1,009 hectares (10.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Impfondo (917 ha, 0.2 %); Louvakou (Loubomo) (99 ha, 0.1 %).
Where does this data come from?
From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Congo - Brazzaville (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.

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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 (Public Domain). 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.