Kimvula fire, August 2026 Kimvula, Popokabaka
The fire started on 17 August 2026 in Kimvula, Congo - Kinshasa, and satellites saw it burning for 23 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 30,908 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the largest fire in Kongo-Central since 2016 (of 18 with a page). Number 39 in Congo - Kinshasa in 2026, of 523.
- Burnt area
- 30,908ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 23days
- 17 Aug 2026 – 8 Sept 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- territories
- Started on
- 17 Aug
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 847
- in a single hotspot: 77 MW
- Danger at start
- 25
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 6.9GW
- 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 more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 2.7 mm on 11 Sept.
This area had burned before
83% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,640 ha in 2016, 9,988 ha in 2017, 11,478 ha in 2018, 898 ha in 2019, 8,750 ha in 2020, 10,182 ha in 2021, 8,255 ha in 2022, 12,548 ha in 2023, 12,200 ha in 2024, 15,139 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 25,513 ha that had burned before.
- 9,070 ha Kimvula fire, August 2025 5,814 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 4,207 ha Kimvula fire, August 2020 5,075 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 3,674 ha Popokabaka fire, August 2018 5,107 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 3,568 ha Kimvula fire, August 2017 5,279 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 945 ha Kimvula fire, August 2025 5,945 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Kimvula where it started20,203 ha reached on 11 Aug5.2 %
-
10,915 ha reached on 11 Aug1.7 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 11 Aug | 28.8 °C | 51 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 12 Aug | 31.6 °C | 40 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 13 Aug | 31.8 °C | 47 % | 26 km/h | 1.1 mm | Moderate 17 |
| 14 Aug | 30.8 °C | 47 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 15 Aug | 29.6 °C | 49 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 23 |
| 16 Aug | 30.5 °C | 49 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 23 |
| 17 Aug | 31.5 °C | 44 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 18 Aug | 31.3 °C | 41 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 19 Aug | 31.0 °C | 36 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 20 Aug | 33.0 °C | 32 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 21 Aug | 30.8 °C | 44 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 22 Aug | 32.8 °C | 42 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 23 Aug | 32.5 °C | 48 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 24 Aug | 29.7 °C | 53 % | 28 km/h | 0.4 mm | High 26 |
| 25 Aug | 31.4 °C | 50 % | 27 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 25 |
| 26 Aug | 33.1 °C | 43 % | 27 km/h | 0.3 mm | High 24 |
| 27 Aug | 35.8 °C | 35 % | 23 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 30 |
| 28 Aug | 30.0 °C | 53 % | 37 km/h | 0.3 mm | High 28 |
| 29 Aug | 28.0 °C | 60 % | 23 km/h | 0.5 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 30 Aug | 30.7 °C | 52 % | 22 km/h | 0.4 mm | High 22 |
| 31 Aug | 30.2 °C | 52 % | 24 km/h | 0.4 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 1 Sept | 35.6 °C | 37 % | 27 km/h | 0.5 mm | High 28 |
| 2 Sept | 35.6 °C | 38 % | 23 km/h | 3.2 mm | Moderate 12 |
| 3 Sept | 29.4 °C | 57 % | 31 km/h | 3.4 mm | Low 6 |
| 4 Sept | 34.1 °C | 39 % | 25 km/h | 0.3 mm | Moderate 18 |
| 5 Sept | 33.1 °C | 45 % | 26 km/h | 0.2 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 6 Sept | 33.9 °C | 42 % | 21 km/h | 0.2 mm | High 23 |
| 7 Sept | 34.3 °C | 42 % | 23 km/h | 1.2 mm | Moderate 18 |
| 8 Sept | 34.8 °C | 40 % | 27 km/h | 3.5 mm | Low 8 |
| 9 Sept after | 31.4 °C | 51 % | 32 km/h | 0.5 mm | Moderate 17 |
| 10 Sept after | 31.7 °C | 45 % | 26 km/h | 0.6 mm | Moderate 19 |
| 11 Sept after | 32.5 °C | 47 % | 25 km/h | 2.7 mm | Low 8 |
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.
The smoke
CAMS · CopernicusOn 8 September 2026 the air beside the fire reached 148 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 106: 7.1 times the WHO daily guideline (15).
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 · 847Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Kimvula fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 17 August 2026 and 8 September 2026: 23 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 30,908 hectares (309.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Kimvula (20,203 ha, 5.2 %); Popokabaka (10,915 ha, 1.7 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 35.8 °C, humidity dropped to 32 % and gusts hit 37 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 30, 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
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.