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Kahemba fire, 17 June 2026 Kahemba

Out · last detection 10 Jul 2026, 12:42 UTC

The fire started on 17 June 2026 in Kahemba, Democratic Republic of the Congo, and satellites saw it burning for 27 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 18,317 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 18th largest in Kwango since 2016 (of 220 with a page). Number 78 in Democratic Republic of the Congo in 2026, of 523.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Kahemba · 2017Feshi · 2026Kahemba · 2026

Burnt area
18,317ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
27days
17 Jun 2026 – 13 Jul 2026
Municipalities hit
1
territories
Started on
17 Jun
2026
Heat detections
486
in a single hotspot: 150 MW
Danger at start
28
High · FWI index
Average daily power
253MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 17 Jun13 Jul
10 Jul 2026

How it evolved, day by day

17 Jun 2026 · 8 MW · 2 18 Jun 2026 · 264 MW · 11 19 Jun 2026 · 69 MW · 2 21 Jun 2026 · 104 MW · 1 22 Jun 2026 · 38 MW · 6 24 Jun 2026 · 88 MW · 5 25 Jun 2026 · 394 MW · 31 26 Jun 2026 · 751 MW · 43 27 Jun 2026 · 137 MW · 14 28 Jun 2026 · 20 MW · 2 29 Jun 2026 · 308 MW · 15 30 Jun 2026 · 316 MW · 31 1 Jul 2026 · 253 MW · 30 2 Jul 2026 · 63 MW · 6 3 Jul 2026 · 136 MW · 13 4 Jul 2026 · 832 MW · 66 5 Jul 2026 · 292 MW · 19 6 Jul 2026 · 553 MW · 90 7 Jul 2026 · 260 MW · 27 8 Jul 2026 · 385 MW · 28 9 Jul 2026 · 157 MW · 20 10 Jul 2026 · 146 MW · 24
17 Jun 22 Jun 27 Jun 1 Jul 4 Jul 5 Jul 9 Jul

Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.

The weather it burned in

33°high
43km/h · peak gust
18%lowest humidity

It had gone 35 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

92% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 3,030 ha in 2016, 10,151 ha in 2017, 7,668 ha in 2018, 7,494 ha in 2019, 8,721 ha in 2020, 2,924 ha in 2021, 9,007 ha in 2022, 1,617 ha in 2023, 7,172 ha in 2024, 7,420 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 16,765 ha that had burned before.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 12% of the area of London (183 km² against 1,583 km²).

London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).

This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.

What happened to each town

  1. Kahemba where it started
    18,436 ha reached on 17 Jun
    0.9 %

Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the GWIS perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance runs from the point marking the centre of each area to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.

People and buildings inside the perimeter

GHSL 2025
Built-up area1.6 ha
Residents≈ 650

Inside the perimeter there were about 1.6 hectares of built-up land and about 650 residents (GHSL 2025, satellite-based estimate).

This is an estimate on 100 m cells, made from satellite imagery and census data: it does not mean that homes burned or that anyone was harmed. The perimeter also contains land that never burned. The GHSL 2025 epoch is a projection made from 2020 and earlier data.

Source: Global Human Settlement Layer (GHS-BUILT-S and GHS-POP R2023A), European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC), © European Union, CC BY 4.0. Sum inside the perimeter computed by WorldFires. human-settlement.emergency.copernicus.eu

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)
17 Jun 30.2 °C 33 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
18 Jun 29.1 °C 40 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
19 Jun 29.9 °C 41 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
20 Jun 30.8 °C 42 % 33 km/h 0.2 mm High 25
21 Jun 30.7 °C 38 % 27 km/h 0.3 mm High 23
22 Jun 29.6 °C 35 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
23 Jun 29.7 °C 35 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
24 Jun 30.7 °C 27 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
25 Jun 31.1 °C 22 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
26 Jun 30.2 °C 24 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
27 Jun 31.2 °C 28 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
28 Jun 29.3 °C 36 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
29 Jun 29.6 °C 30 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
30 Jun 31.5 °C 23 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
1 Jul 31.9 °C 23 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
2 Jul 30.9 °C 29 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
3 Jul 31.5 °C 28 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
4 Jul 32.7 °C 20 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
5 Jul 32.1 °C 19 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
6 Jul 32.0 °C 19 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
7 Jul 31.2 °C 20 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
8 Jul 30.0 °C 26 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
9 Jul 30.9 °C 25 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
10 Jul 31.3 °C 25 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
11 Jul 30.9 °C 25 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
12 Jul 31.7 °C 24 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
13 Jul 32.4 °C 18 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
14 Jul after 31.9 °C 20 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
15 Jul after 31.4 °C 26 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
16 Jul after 30.1 °C 21 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
17 Jul after 30.0 °C 17 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
18 Jul after 30.4 °C 18 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
19 Jul after 30.0 °C 21 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
20 Jul after 28.8 °C 36 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
21 Jul after 30.4 °C 35 % 18 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
22 Jul after 32.5 °C 19 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
23 Jul after 32.2 °C 16 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 10 Jun 2026
After · 20 Jul 2026

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 · Copernicus

On 27 June 2026 the air beside the fire reached 143 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 79: 5.3 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak143 µg/m³
Days over the guideline25 days
PM10148 µg/m³
Optical depth1.21
22232425262728293012345678910111213141516
Good Fair Moderate Poor Very poor Extremely poor

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 · 486Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
⬇ Download CSV Times in UTC. Each detection is a 375 m pixel: a large fire yields hundreds per pass.
Date and timeSatelliteFRP (MW)LatLon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Democratic Republic of the Congo ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Kahemba fire last?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 17 June 2026 to 13 July 2026 (27 days). The perimeter dates it from 24 June 2026 to 13 July 2026.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 18,317 hectares (183.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Kahemba (18,436 ha, 0.9 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 32.7 °C, humidity dropped to 18 % and gusts hit 43 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 43, class Very 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

History of this page · 1 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
  1. Start date: 24 June 2026 → 17 June 2026.

RSS Changes to this page

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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How we know this
  • Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery.
  • Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 24 June 2026 to 13 July 2026. 486 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
  • We have not matched this page with any official record.
  • Weather: Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, in cells of about 25 km.
  • Built-up area and population come from the JRC Global Human Settlement Layer (epoch 2025, 100 m cells), summed inside the perimeter: an estimate of what was there, not a damage count.

How we build fire pages: methodology ›

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.