Impfondo fire, 1 September 2026 Impfondo, Louvakou (Loubomo)
The fire started on 1 September 2026 in Impfondo, Congo - Brazzaville, and satellites saw it burning for 8 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,123 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 24th largest in Bouenza since 2016 (of 180 with a page). Number 69 in Congo - Brazzaville in 2026, of 360.
- Burnt area
- 2,123ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 8days
- 1 Sept 2026 – 8 Sept 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- districts
- Started on
- 1 Sept
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 41
- in a single hotspot: 103 MW
- Danger at start
- 22
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 688MW
- 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 3 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.0 mm on 16 Sept.
This area had burned before
27% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 288 ha in 2016, 225 ha in 2018, 412 ha in 2021. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 576 ha that had burned before.
- 412 ha Impfondo fire, August 2021 1,009 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 288 ha Louvakou (Loubomo) fire, July 2016 1,074 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 225 ha Louvakou (Loubomo) fire, August 2018 1,076 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Impfondo where it started1,657 ha reached on 1 Sept0.3 %
-
480 ha reached on 1 Sept0.5 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 Sept | 34.1 °C | 45 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 2 Sept | 29.4 °C | 60 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 18 |
| 3 Sept | 27.9 °C | 66 % | 26 km/h | 0.3 mm | Moderate 16 |
| 4 Sept | 33.0 °C | 50 % | 26 km/h | 0.1 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 5 Sept | 28.8 °C | 63 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 18 |
| 6 Sept | 30.0 °C | 58 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 18 |
| 7 Sept | 34.2 °C | 46 % | 26 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 23 |
| 8 Sept | 30.2 °C | 58 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 9 Sept after | 28.0 °C | 61 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 19 |
| 10 Sept after | 32.4 °C | 47 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 23 |
| 11 Sept after | 29.6 °C | 58 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 12 Sept after | 31.5 °C | 52 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 13 Sept after | 27.5 °C | 64 % | 23 km/h | 0.1 mm | Moderate 17 |
| 14 Sept after | 33.7 °C | 46 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 15 Sept after | 28.9 °C | 58 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 16 Sept after | 27.0 °C | 63 % | 24 km/h | 1.0 mm | Low 11 |
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 9 September 2026 the air beside the fire reached 134 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 77: 5.1 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 · 41Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 4,055 haImpfondo14 September 2026 · 12 days · 8 km away
- 4,701 haImpfondo1 September 2026 · 10 days · 9 km away
- 6,651 haImpfondo2 September 2026 · 13 days · 15 km away
- 4,434 haImpfondo14 September 2025 · 7 days · 23 km away
- 5,384 haImpfondo7 September 2026 · 9 days · 26 km away
- 7,494 haImpfondo1 September 2026 · 15 days · 30 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Impfondo fire last?
- According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 1 September 2026 to 8 September 2026 (8 days). The perimeter dates it from 1 September 2026 to 1 September 2026.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 2,123 hectares (21.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Impfondo (1,657 ha, 0.3 %); Louvakou (Loubomo) (480 ha, 0.5 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 34.2 °C, humidity dropped to 45 % and gusts hit 26 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 23, class High.
- 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.
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 (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.