How long did the Kasongo fire last?

According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 30 May 2026 to 1 July 2026 (33 days). The perimeter dates it from 6 June 2026 to 24 June 2026.

How much area did it burn?

The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 10,358 hectares (103.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire only entered Kasongo (10,431 ha, 0.6 %).

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 35.9 °C, humidity dropped to 21 % and gusts hit 36 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 39, 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.

CD · Democratic Republic of the Congo · 2026-05-30 → 2026-07-01

Kasongo fire, May 2026 Kasongo

Out · last detection 1 Jul 2026, 12:10 UTC

The fire started on 30 May 2026 in Kasongo, Democratic Republic of the Congo, and satellites saw it burning for 33 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 10,358 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 2th largest in Maniema since 2016 (of 22 with a page). Number 174 in Democratic Republic of the Congo in 2026, of 523.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Kasongo · 2018 Kasongo · 2021 Kasongo · 2018 Kasongo · 2020

Burnt area: 10,358ha; GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration: 33days; 30 May 2026 – 1 Jul 2026
Municipalities hit: 1; territories
Started on: 30 May; 2026
Heat detections: 245; in a single hotspot: 49 MW
Danger at start: 15; Moderate · FWI index
Average daily power: 99MW; detected power per day, on average

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 30 May1 Jul

Play back 1 Jul 2026

How it evolved, day by day

30 May 3 Jun 11 Jun 13 Jun 15 Jun 20 Jun 25 Jun 29 Jun

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

The weather it burned in

36°high

36km/h · peak gust

21%lowest humidity

It had gone 19 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

95% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 6,017 ha in 2016, 2,776 ha in 2017, 6,372 ha in 2018, 3,011 ha in 2019, 5,021 ha in 2020, 3,481 ha in 2021, 3,977 ha in 2022, 4,076 ha in 2023, 4,029 ha in 2024, 2,574 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 9,853 ha that had burned before.

4,555 ha Kasongo fire, May 2018 6,742 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire

How big is it?

It burned the equivalent of 6.5% of the area of London (104 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

Kasongo where it started

10,431 ha reached on 30 May

0.6 %

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.

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)
6 Jun	32.9 °C	49 %	23 km/h	0.7 mm	Moderate 15
7 Jun	33.6 °C	47 %	36 km/h	0.3 mm	Moderate 17
8 Jun	33.3 °C	46 %	30 km/h	0.1 mm	Moderate 16
9 Jun	34.1 °C	40 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 21
10 Jun	33.3 °C	36 %	25 km/h	0.0 mm	High 23
11 Jun	33.5 °C	36 %	24 km/h	0.0 mm	High 22
12 Jun	34.1 °C	32 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	High 26
13 Jun	34.5 °C	30 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	High 30
14 Jun	34.9 °C	30 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	High 29
15 Jun	33.8 °C	32 %	23 km/h	0.0 mm	High 29
16 Jun	32.1 °C	47 %	32 km/h	0.4 mm	High 25
17 Jun	33.7 °C	30 %	24 km/h	0.0 mm	High 26
18 Jun	34.1 °C	30 %	24 km/h	0.0 mm	High 29
19 Jun	32.1 °C	39 %	17 km/h	0.1 mm	High 26
20 Jun	35.1 °C	29 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	High 33
21 Jun	34.9 °C	28 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	High 34
22 Jun	34.5 °C	22 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	High 35
23 Jun	33.9 °C	25 %	19 km/h	0.0 mm	High 32
24 Jun	33.5 °C	24 %	20 km/h	0.0 mm	High 32
25 Jun	34.3 °C	26 %	15 km/h	0.0 mm	High 32
26 Jun	34.7 °C	29 %	22 km/h	0.0 mm	High 35
27 Jun	34.6 °C	21 %	29 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 38
28 Jun	33.8 °C	23 %	20 km/h	0.0 mm	High 37
29 Jun	34.4 °C	21 %	29 km/h	0.0 mm	High 37
30 Jun	35.9 °C	22 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 39
1 Jul	34.6 °C	26 %	21 km/h	0.0 mm	High 37
2 Jul after	33.7 °C	33 %	20 km/h	0.0 mm	High 34
3 Jul after	35.6 °C	26 %	25 km/h	0.0 mm	High 34
4 Jul after	35.7 °C	22 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	High 37
5 Jul after	35.7 °C	24 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 39
6 Jul after	35.2 °C	27 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 42
7 Jul after	34.9 °C	28 %	39 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 43
8 Jul after	33.7 °C	31 %	21 km/h	0.0 mm	High 35
9 Jul after	34.8 °C	27 %	19 km/h	0.0 mm	High 35
10 Jul after	34.4 °C	31 %	22 km/h	0.0 mm	High 35
11 Jul after	33.5 °C	41 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	High 35

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 23 May 2026

After · 8 Jul 2026

Before After

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 23 June 2026 the air beside the fire reached 103 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 59: 3.9 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak103 µg/m³

Days over the guideline24 days

PM10106 µg/m³

Optical depth0.88

WHO 15

456789101112131415161718192021222324252627

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 · 245Every 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 time	Satellite	FRP (MW)	Lat	Lon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Democratic Republic of the Congo ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Kasongo fire last?: According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 30 May 2026 to 1 July 2026 (33 days). The perimeter dates it from 6 June 2026 to 24 June 2026.
How much area did it burn?: The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 10,358 hectares (103.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire only entered Kasongo (10,431 ha, 0.6 %).
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 35.9 °C, humidity dropped to 21 % and gusts hit 36 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 39, 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

NASA FIRMS ↗
GWIS · Copernicus ↗

History of this page · 2 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.

26 October 2026 Last day with fire: 24 June 2026 → 1 July 2026.
26 October 2026 Start date: 6 June 2026 → 30 May 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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What do you think is wrong?

Dates or duration Place or towns Burned area Name It was not a wildfire Same fire as another page Something else

What really happened?

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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 6 June 2026 to 24 June 2026. 245 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.

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.

Where it burned