Kahemba fire, 23 June 2018 Kahemba
The fire started on 23 June 2018 in Kahemba, Congo - Kinshasa, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,292 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 181th largest in Kwango since 2016 (of 219 with a page). Number 106 in Congo - Kinshasa in 2018, of 128.
- Burnt area
- 5,292ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 4days
- 23 Jun 2018 – 26 Jun 2018
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- territories
- Started on
- 23 Jun
- 2018
- Heat detections
- 157
- in a single hotspot: 163 MW
- Danger at start
- 31
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 5.4GW
- 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 32 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
61% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,636 ha in 2016, 2,913 ha in 2017. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 3,247 ha that had burned before.
What happened to each town
-
Kahemba where it started5,333 ha reached on 19 Jun0.3 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 23 Jun | 28.5 °C | 30 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 24 Jun | 28.8 °C | 31 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 25 Jun | 29.0 °C | 32 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 26 Jun | 29.7 °C | 26 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 27 Jun after | 30.4 °C | 23 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 28 Jun after | 29.5 °C | 27 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 29 Jun after | 28.9 °C | 24 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 30 Jun after | 29.8 °C | 23 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 1 Jul after | 28.9 °C | 27 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 2 Jul after | 29.5 °C | 29 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 3 Jul after | 28.3 °C | 28 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 4 Jul after | 29.3 °C | 25 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 5 Jul after | 29.2 °C | 25 % | 52 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 6 Jul after | 29.0 °C | 26 % | 49 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
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.
Detections table · 157Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 8,320 haKahemba29 June 2026 · 3 days · 1 km away
- 7,755 haKahemba13 July 2018 · 13 days · 12 km away
- 10,397 haKahemba11 August 2026 · 8 days · 13 km away
- 9,657 haKahemba18 July 2026 · 10 days · 19 km away
- 13,637 haKahemba20 July 2026 · 13 days · 22 km away
- 10,827 haKahemba25 June 2017 · 11 days · 28 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Kahemba fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 23 June 2018 and 26 June 2018: 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 5,292 hectares (52.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Kahemba (5,333 ha, 0.3 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 29.7 °C, humidity dropped to 26 % and gusts hit 37 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 35, 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.