Kabongo fire, September 2025 Kabongo, Kabinda, Lubao
The fire started on 1 September 2025 in Kabongo, Congo - Kinshasa, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,229 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.
It is the 150th largest in Haut-Lomami since 2016 (of 172 with a page). Number 112 in Congo - Kinshasa in 2025, of 118.
- Burnt area
- 5,229ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 4days
- 1 Sept 2025 – 4 Sept 2025
- Municipalities hit
- 3
- territories
- Started on
- 1 Sept
- 2025
- Heat detections
- 155
- in a single hotspot: 332 MW
- Danger at start
- 48
- Very high · FWI index
- Energy released
- 7.4GW
- 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 4 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.5 mm on 10 Sept.
This area had burned before
76% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,173 ha in 2016, 1,511 ha in 2017, 920 ha in 2018, 2,115 ha in 2019, 1,586 ha in 2021, 55 ha in 2022, 1,060 ha in 2023. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 3,994 ha that had burned before.
What happened to each town
-
Kabongo where it started2,222 ha reached on 1 Sept0.1 %
-
1,841 ha reached on 1 Sept0.1 %
-
1,199 ha reached on 1 Sept0.0 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 Sept | 35.9 °C | 17 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 2 Sept | 36.1 °C | 13 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 3 Sept | 35.0 °C | 15 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 4 Sept | 36.0 °C | 15 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 5 Sept after | 35.0 °C | 18 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 6 Sept after | 36.0 °C | 20 % | 19 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 7 Sept after | 34.4 °C | 25 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 8 Sept after | 34.5 °C | 22 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 9 Sept after | 33.2 °C | 27 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 10 Sept after | 32.4 °C | 34 % | 24 km/h | 1.5 mm | Moderate 20 |
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 1 September 2025 the air beside the fire reached 98 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 66: 4.4 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 · 155Every 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 Kabongo fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 1 September 2025 and 4 September 2025: 4 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 5,229 hectares (52.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 3 municipalities: Kabongo (2,222 ha, 0.1 %); Kabinda (1,841 ha, 0.1 %); Lubao (1,199 ha, 0.0 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 36.1 °C, humidity dropped to 13 % and gusts hit 44 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 52, class Extreme.
- 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.