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Kasongo-Lunda fire, 23 June 2026 Kasongo-Lunda, Feshi, Kahemba

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

The fire started on 23 June 2026 in Kasongo-Lunda, Democratic Republic of the Congo, and satellites saw it burning for 21 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 39,317 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.

It is the 3th largest in Kwango since 2016 (of 220 with a page). Number 29 in Democratic Republic of the Congo in 2026, of 523.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Kasongo-Lunda · 2020Kasongo-Lunda · 2024Kasongo-Lunda · 2023Kasongo-Lunda · 2024

Burnt area
39,317ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
21days
23 Jun 2026 – 13 Jul 2026
Municipalities hit
3
territories
Started on
23 Jun
2026
Heat detections
930
in a single hotspot: 189 MW
Danger at start
21
Moderate · FWI index
Average daily power
1.2GW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 23 Jun13 Jul
10 Jul 2026

How it evolved, day by day

23 Jun 2026 · 13 MW · 2 24 Jun 2026 · 52 MW · 6 25 Jun 2026 · 855 MW · 80 26 Jun 2026 · 320 MW · 28 27 Jun 2026 · 438 MW · 32 29 Jun 2026 · 68 MW · 6 30 Jun 2026 · 549 MW · 47 1 Jul 2026 · 1,139 MW · 76 2 Jul 2026 · 1,530 MW · 67 3 Jul 2026 · 834 MW · 32 4 Jul 2026 · 1,021 MW · 56 5 Jul 2026 · 685 MW · 20 6 Jul 2026 · 3,684 MW · 145 7 Jul 2026 · 3,829 MW · 108 8 Jul 2026 · 1,963 MW · 78 9 Jul 2026 · 240 MW · 30 10 Jul 2026 · 3,056 MW · 117
23 Jun 26 Jun 30 Jun 3 Jul 6 Jul 7 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
38km/h · peak gust
19%lowest humidity

It had gone 33 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

97% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 11,033 ha in 2016, 10,660 ha in 2017, 11,734 ha in 2018, 15,082 ha in 2019, 15,073 ha in 2020, 9,287 ha in 2021, 13,600 ha in 2022, 10,870 ha in 2023, 23,746 ha in 2024, 8,015 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 38,151 ha that had burned before.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 25% of the area of London (393 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. Kasongo-Lunda where it started
    39,372 ha reached on 23 Jun
    1.5 %
  2. Feshi
    204 ha reached on 24 Jun
    0.0 %
  3. Kahemba
    3 ha reached on 24 Jun
    0.0 %

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 area1.8 ha
Residents≈ 350

Inside the perimeter there were about 1.8 hectares of built-up land and about 350 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)
23 Jun 29.0 °C 42 % 21 km/h 0.3 mm Moderate 21
24 Jun 31.2 °C 29 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
25 Jun 31.7 °C 23 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
26 Jun 30.0 °C 24 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
27 Jun 32.0 °C 25 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
28 Jun 29.1 °C 40 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
29 Jun 31.1 °C 24 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
30 Jun 31.5 °C 25 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
1 Jul 31.2 °C 29 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
2 Jul 31.0 °C 30 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
3 Jul 31.2 °C 31 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
4 Jul 33.4 °C 20 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
5 Jul 32.2 °C 21 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
6 Jul 32.5 °C 19 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
7 Jul 32.2 °C 19 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
8 Jul 30.4 °C 26 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
9 Jul 31.0 °C 27 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
10 Jul 31.3 °C 27 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
11 Jul 30.3 °C 29 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
12 Jul 31.9 °C 24 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
13 Jul 32.9 °C 20 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
14 Jul after 32.3 °C 19 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
15 Jul after 31.3 °C 28 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
16 Jul after 30.4 °C 22 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
17 Jul after 30.8 °C 18 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
18 Jul after 30.6 °C 18 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
19 Jul after 30.9 °C 22 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
20 Jul after 28.5 °C 38 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
21 Jul after 28.9 °C 44 % 17 km/h 0.1 mm High 26
22 Jul after 32.4 °C 26 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
23 Jul after 32.6 °C 17 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 16 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 181 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 118: 7.9 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak181 µg/m³
Days over the guideline20 days
PM10186 µg/m³
Optical depth1.51
2728293012345678910111213141516
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 · 930Every 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 Kasongo-Lunda fire last?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 23 June 2026 to 13 July 2026 (21 days). The perimeter dates it from 29 June 2026 to 13 July 2026.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 39,317 hectares (393.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 3 municipalities: Kasongo-Lunda (39,372 ha, 1.5 %); Feshi (204 ha, 0.0 %); Kahemba (3 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 33.4 °C, humidity dropped to 19 % and gusts hit 38 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 40, 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: 29 June 2026 → 23 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; 2 polygons grouped in this page.
  • Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 29 June 2026 to 13 July 2026. 930 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.