Kasongo fire, June 2024 Kasongo, Kibombo
The fire started on 28 June 2024 in Kasongo, Congo - Kinshasa, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,679 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 14th largest in Maniema since 2016 (of 22 with a page). Number 105 in Congo - Kinshasa in 2024, of 133.
- Burnt area
- 5,679ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 6days
- 28 Jun 2024 – 3 Jul 2024
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- territories
- Started on
- 28 Jun
- 2024
- Heat detections
- 173
- in a single hotspot: 224 MW
- Danger at start
- 50
- Extreme · FWI index
- Energy released
- 5.1GW
- 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 27 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
93% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,557 ha in 2016, 3,709 ha in 2017, 1,222 ha in 2018, 2,061 ha in 2019, 2,679 ha in 2020, 2,781 ha in 2021, 1,897 ha in 2022, 1,475 ha in 2023. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 5,307 ha that had burned before.
What happened to each town
-
Kasongo where it started3,942 ha reached on 28 Jun0.2 %
-
1,781 ha reached on 28 Jun0.1 %
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.
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 28 Jun | 36.2 °C | 20 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 50 |
| 29 Jun | 36.7 °C | 19 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 30 Jun | 36.7 °C | 18 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 50 |
| 1 Jul | 37.1 °C | 15 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 50 |
| 2 Jul | 37.2 °C | 15 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 50 |
| 3 Jul | 36.0 °C | 16 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 4 Jul after | 37.3 °C | 16 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 5 Jul after | 37.3 °C | 16 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 6 Jul after | 36.5 °C | 17 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 7 Jul after | 35.6 °C | 16 % | 17 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 8 Jul after | 34.4 °C | 24 % | 21 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 9 Jul after | 35.6 °C | 18 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 10 Jul after | 36.4 °C | 16 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 11 Jul after | 37.2 °C | 17 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 12 Jul after | 36.0 °C | 17 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 13 Jul after | 37.0 °C | 15 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
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 29 June 2024 the air beside the fire reached 96 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 56: 3.7 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 · 173Every 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 Kasongo fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 28 June 2024 and 3 July 2024: 6 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 5,679 hectares (56.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Kasongo (3,942 ha, 0.2 %); Kibombo (1,781 ha, 0.1 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 37.2 °C, humidity dropped to 15 % and gusts hit 42 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 50, 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.