Kazumba fire, 21 July 2017 Kazumba
The fire started on 21 July 2017 in Kazumba, Congo - Kinshasa, and satellites saw it burning for 15 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 8,001 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 37th largest in Central Kasai since 2016 (of 84 with a page). Number 38 in Congo - Kinshasa in 2017, of 138.
- Burnt area
- 8,001ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 15days
- 21 Jul 2017 – 4 Aug 2017
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- territories
- Started on
- 21 Jul
- 2017
- Heat detections
- 430
- in a single hotspot: 130 MW
- Danger at start
- 36
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 3.7GW
- 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 8 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.4 mm on 8 Aug.
This area had burned before
59% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 4,733 ha in 2016.
What happened to each town
-
Kazumba where it started8,054 ha reached on 14 Jul0.6 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 21 Jul | 33.2 °C | 22 % | 18 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 22 Jul | 31.9 °C | 36 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 23 Jul | 31.2 °C | 47 % | 27 km/h | 0.2 mm | High 28 |
| 24 Jul | 30.9 °C | 41 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 25 Jul | 32.0 °C | 36 % | 28 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 29 |
| 26 Jul | 29.4 °C | 48 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 27 Jul | 31.0 °C | 45 % | 22 km/h | 1.3 mm | Moderate 16 |
| 28 Jul | 33.6 °C | 27 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 29 Jul | 32.6 °C | 25 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 30 Jul | 33.1 °C | 23 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 31 Jul | 32.5 °C | 33 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 1 Aug | 31.8 °C | 37 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 2 Aug | 30.9 °C | 43 % | 22 km/h | 0.2 mm | High 29 |
| 3 Aug | 31.7 °C | 32 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 4 Aug | 30.2 °C | 45 % | 22 km/h | 1.0 mm | Moderate 19 |
| 5 Aug after | 30.5 °C | 48 % | 31 km/h | 0.9 mm | Moderate 19 |
| 6 Aug after | 29.4 °C | 47 % | 20 km/h | 0.6 mm | Moderate 19 |
| 7 Aug after | 32.0 °C | 41 % | 25 km/h | 0.7 mm | High 21 |
| 8 Aug after | 29.5 °C | 48 % | 24 km/h | 1.4 mm | Moderate 13 |
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.
Detections table · 430Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 68,292 haKazumba27 July 2026 · 41 days · 5 km away
- 42,106 haKazumba25 July 2024 · 20 days · 7 km away
- 148,354 haKazumba15 July 2020 · 30 days · 8 km away
- 16,431 haKamoniaAugust 2019 · 13 days · 16 km away
- 58,681 haKamonia2 August 2023 · 15 days · 21 km away
- 21,405 haKamonia5 August 2026 · 30 days · 32 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Kazumba fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 21 July 2017 and 4 August 2017: 15 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 8,001 hectares (80.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Kazumba (8,054 ha, 0.6 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 33.6 °C, humidity dropped to 22 % and gusts hit 36 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 38, class Very high.
- 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.