How long did the Kazumba fire last?

GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 24 July 2017 and 4 August 2017: 12 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 15,952 hectares (159.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire only entered Kazumba (16,058 ha, 1.3 %).

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 34.0 °C, humidity dropped to 23 % and gusts hit 36 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 36, class 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.

CD · Congo - Kinshasa · 2017-07-24 → 2017-08-04

Kazumba fire, 24 July 2017 Kazumba

Out · last detection 5 Aug 2017, 11:34 UTC

The fire started on 24 July 2017 in Kazumba, Congo - Kinshasa, and satellites saw it burning for 12 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 15,952 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 7th largest in Central Kasai since 2016 (of 84 with a page). Number 7 in Congo - Kinshasa in 2017, of 138.

Burnt area: 15,952ha; GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration: 12days; 24 Jul 2017 – 4 Aug 2017
Municipalities hit: 1; territories
Started on: 24 Jul; 2017
Heat detections: 811; in a single hotspot: 83 MW
Danger at start: 35; High · FWI index
Energy released: 6.3GW; sum of detected power

Play back 5 Aug 2017

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 24 Jul4 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

24252627282930312345

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

The weather it burned in

34°high

36km/h · peak gust

23%lowest humidity

It had gone 4 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.9 mm on 19 Aug.

This area had burned before

69% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 12,650 ha in 2016. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 10,965 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

Kazumba where it started

16,058 ha reached on 17 Jul

1.3 %

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)
17 Jul	34.0 °C	23 %	24 km/h	0.0 mm	High 35
18 Jul	30.8 °C	40 %	19 km/h	0.2 mm	High 30
19 Jul	31.7 °C	37 %	24 km/h	0.0 mm	High 29
20 Jul	33.4 °C	29 %	25 km/h	0.0 mm	High 31
21 Jul	33.0 °C	23 %	18 km/h	0.0 mm	High 35
22 Jul	31.9 °C	36 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	High 36
23 Jul	30.9 °C	48 %	23 km/h	0.4 mm	High 27
24 Jul	31.0 °C	42 %	23 km/h	0.0 mm	High 28
25 Jul	31.3 °C	39 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	High 28
26 Jul	29.4 °C	48 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	High 25
27 Jul	31.6 °C	42 %	22 km/h	2.7 mm	Low 9
28 Jul	33.4 °C	26 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	High 28
29 Jul	32.2 °C	25 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	High 36
30 Jul	32.6 °C	25 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	High 35
31 Jul	32.7 °C	31 %	25 km/h	0.0 mm	High 33
1 Aug	31.6 °C	37 %	22 km/h	0.0 mm	High 31
2 Aug	30.9 °C	44 %	22 km/h	0.3 mm	High 26
3 Aug	31.3 °C	34 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	High 28
4 Aug	30.4 °C	46 %	21 km/h	0.8 mm	Moderate 20
5 Aug after	30.5 °C	49 %	31 km/h	1.9 mm	Moderate 12
6 Aug after	28.9 °C	49 %	19 km/h	0.8 mm	Moderate 14
7 Aug after	31.9 °C	41 %	25 km/h	0.3 mm	Moderate 21
8 Aug after	29.3 °C	49 %	24 km/h	1.7 mm	Low 10
9 Aug after	29.7 °C	45 %	22 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 19
10 Aug after	31.2 °C	33 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	High 26
11 Aug after	31.4 °C	34 %	24 km/h	0.0 mm	High 27
12 Aug after	31.9 °C	37 %	23 km/h	0.0 mm	High 26
13 Aug after	31.0 °C	34 %	21 km/h	0.0 mm	High 26
14 Aug after	33.1 °C	21 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	High 35
15 Aug after	32.8 °C	27 %	20 km/h	0.0 mm	High 35
16 Aug after	34.1 °C	25 %	24 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 38
17 Aug after	29.5 °C	46 %	28 km/h	0.2 mm	High 27
18 Aug after	30.0 °C	45 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	High 28
19 Aug after	32.2 °C	42 %	29 km/h	1.9 mm	Moderate 13

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 17 Jul 2017

After · 11 Aug 2017

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.

Detections table · 811Every 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 Congo - Kinshasa ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Kazumba fire last?: GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 24 July 2017 and 4 August 2017: 12 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 15,952 hectares (159.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire only entered Kazumba (16,058 ha, 1.3 %).
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 34.0 °C, humidity dropped to 23 % and gusts hit 36 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 36, class 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

NASA FIRMS ↗
GWIS · Copernicus ↗

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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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