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Katako-Kombe fire, 4 July 2023 Katako-Kombe

Out · last detection 28 Jul 2023, 12:45 UTC

The fire started on 4 July 2023 in Katako-Kombe, Democratic Republic of the Congo, and satellites saw it burning for 25 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 29,867 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 25th largest in Sankuru since 2016 (of 187 with a page). Number 5 in Democratic Republic of the Congo in 2023, of 76.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Katako-Kombe · 2018Katako-Kombe · 2020Katako-Kombe · 2022Katako-Kombe · 2020

Burnt area
29,867ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
25days
4 Jul 2023 – 28 Jul 2023
Municipalities hit
1
territories
Started on
4 Jul
2023
Heat detections
1,702
in a single hotspot: 130 MW
Danger at start
22
High · FWI index
Average daily power
880MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 4 Jul28 Jul
28 Jul 2023

How it evolved, day by day

4 Jul 2023 · 127 MW · 19 5 Jul 2023 · 307 MW · 32 7 Jul 2023 · 1,616 MW · 158 8 Jul 2023 · 2,195 MW · 191 9 Jul 2023 · 1,130 MW · 92 10 Jul 2023 · 2,998 MW · 238 12 Jul 2023 · 32 MW · 4 13 Jul 2023 · 459 MW · 76 14 Jul 2023 · 1,973 MW · 144 15 Jul 2023 · 2,613 MW · 239 16 Jul 2023 · 1,198 MW · 89 17 Jul 2023 · 1,311 MW · 159 18 Jul 2023 · 528 MW · 56 19 Jul 2023 · 627 MW · 53 20 Jul 2023 · 705 MW · 68 21 Jul 2023 · 128 MW · 17 22 Jul 2023 · 10 MW · 2 23 Jul 2023 · 11 MW · 2 24 Jul 2023 · 160 MW · 15 25 Jul 2023 · 245 MW · 34 28 Jul 2023 · 103 MW · 14
4 Jul 8 Jul 10 Jul 12 Jul 15 Jul 18 Jul 21 Jul 24 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

37°high
41km/h · peak gust
18%lowest humidity

It had gone 3 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

98% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 12,657 ha in 2016, 13,711 ha in 2017, 23,247 ha in 2018, 11,475 ha in 2019, 25,391 ha in 2020, 16,172 ha in 2021, 27,407 ha in 2022. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 29,309 ha that had burned before.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 19% of the area of London (299 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. Katako-Kombe where it started
    30,066 ha reached on 4 Jul
    1.2 %

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 area21 ha
Residents≈ 550

Inside the perimeter there were about 21 hectares of built-up land and about 550 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)
4 Jul 33.8 °C 27 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
5 Jul 32.0 °C 35 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
6 Jul 32.7 °C 29 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
7 Jul 33.7 °C 24 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
8 Jul 34.4 °C 23 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
9 Jul 32.2 °C 38 % 17 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
10 Jul 33.4 °C 40 % 28 km/h 0.3 mm High 22
11 Jul 33.9 °C 41 % 29 km/h 0.2 mm High 22
12 Jul 33.7 °C 30 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
13 Jul 33.7 °C 31 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
14 Jul 35.6 °C 24 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
15 Jul 35.7 °C 24 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
16 Jul 35.7 °C 26 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
17 Jul 36.5 °C 20 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
18 Jul 36.7 °C 18 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
19 Jul 35.0 °C 21 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
20 Jul 34.4 °C 30 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
21 Jul 34.1 °C 35 % 23 km/h 0.1 mm High 30
22 Jul 35.9 °C 20 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
23 Jul 35.6 °C 21 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
24 Jul 34.8 °C 23 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
25 Jul 35.1 °C 28 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
26 Jul 35.5 °C 23 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
27 Jul 34.5 °C 27 % 19 km/h 0.1 mm High 35
28 Jul 36.0 °C 21 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
29 Jul after 34.9 °C 34 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
30 Jul after 35.3 °C 31 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
31 Jul after 34.9 °C 31 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
1 Aug after 34.9 °C 28 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
2 Aug after 33.4 °C 35 % 21 km/h 0.1 mm High 33
3 Aug after 34.0 °C 32 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
4 Aug after 35.9 °C 22 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
5 Aug after 35.8 °C 23 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
6 Aug after 36.3 °C 21 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
7 Aug after 33.4 °C 30 % 39 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 · 27 Jun 2023
After · 4 Aug 2023

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 8 July 2023 the air beside the fire reached 648 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 216: 14 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak648 µg/m³
Days over the guideline23 days
PM10928 µg/m³
Optical depth2.77
23456789101112131415161718192021222324
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 · 1,702Every 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 Katako-Kombe fire last?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 4 July 2023 to 28 July 2023 (25 days). The perimeter dates it from 4 July 2023 to 21 July 2023.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 29,867 hectares (298.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Katako-Kombe (30,066 ha, 1.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.7 °C, humidity dropped to 18 % and gusts hit 41 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. Last day with fire: 21 July 2023 → 28 July 2023.

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; 3 polygons grouped in this page.
  • Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 4 July 2023 to 21 July 2023. 1,702 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.