How long did the Kongolo fire last?

According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 2 August 2026 to 15 September 2026 (45 days). The perimeter dates it from 9 August 2026 to 11 September 2026.

How much area did it burn?

The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 13,443 hectares (134.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire only entered Kongolo (13,526 ha, 1.0 %).

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 37.2 °C, humidity dropped to 17 % and gusts hit 44 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 49, 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.

CD · Democratic Republic of the Congo · 2026-08-02 → 2026-09-15

Kongolo fire, 2 August 2026 Kongolo

Out · last detection 15 Sept 2026, 11:47 UTC

The fire started on 2 August 2026 in Kongolo, Democratic Republic of the Congo, and satellites saw it burning for 45 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 13,443 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

This page is probably a fire complex, not a single fire. GWIS merges into one perimeter the fires that touch over weeks, which in large burning seasons can join dozens of separate fires. The total area is reliable; the origin and dates refer to the whole complex.

Other fire pages in the same area and on the same dates:

It is the 17th largest in Tanganyika since 2016 (of 232 with a page). Number 122 in Democratic Republic of the Congo in 2026, of 523.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Kongolo · 2023 Kongolo · 2025 Kongolo · 2021 Kongolo · 2025

Burnt area: 13,443ha; GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration: 45days; 2 Aug 2026 – 15 Sept 2026
Municipalities hit: 1; territories
Started on: 2 Aug; 2026
Heat detections: 709; in a single hotspot: 124 MW
Danger at start: 36; High · FWI index
Average daily power: 161MW; detected power per day, on average

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 2 Aug15 Sept

Play back 15 Sept 2026

How it evolved, day by day

2 Aug 12 Aug 14 Aug 18 Aug 25 Aug 31 Aug 8 Sept

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

44km/h · peak gust

17%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.8 mm on 16 Sept.

This area had burned before

97% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 3,424 ha in 2016, 4,404 ha in 2017, 2,240 ha in 2018, 9,756 ha in 2019, 7,457 ha in 2020, 9,917 ha in 2021, 8,562 ha in 2022, 10,530 ha in 2023, 8,853 ha in 2024, 12,917 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 12,974 ha that had burned before.

How big is it?

It burned the equivalent of 8.5% of the area of London (134 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

Kongolo where it started

13,526 ha reached on 2 Aug

1.0 %

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 area3.8 ha

Residents≈ 1,600

Inside the perimeter there were about 3.8 hectares of built-up land and about 1,600 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)
2 Aug	34.0 °C	21 %	21 km/h	0.0 mm	High 36
3 Aug	33.8 °C	23 %	18 km/h	0.0 mm	High 36
4 Aug	34.8 °C	23 %	22 km/h	0.0 mm	High 37
5 Aug	33.7 °C	32 %	23 km/h	0.0 mm	High 36
6 Aug	34.6 °C	26 %	24 km/h	0.0 mm	High 33
7 Aug	33.0 °C	33 %	25 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 38
8 Aug	32.5 °C	37 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	High 31
9 Aug	32.8 °C	34 %	18 km/h	0.0 mm	High 29
10 Aug	34.4 °C	27 %	22 km/h	0.0 mm	High 31
11 Aug	32.5 °C	39 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	High 31
12 Aug	32.8 °C	31 %	21 km/h	0.0 mm	High 31
13 Aug	34.0 °C	24 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 38
14 Aug	35.1 °C	21 %	42 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 44
15 Aug	33.9 °C	25 %	44 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 46
16 Aug	34.1 °C	23 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 41
17 Aug	34.7 °C	22 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40
18 Aug	35.0 °C	20 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 39
19 Aug	35.9 °C	18 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 43
20 Aug	33.8 °C	20 %	22 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 42
21 Aug	34.5 °C	24 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 41
22 Aug	36.1 °C	20 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 43
23 Aug	34.1 °C	26 %	23 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40
24 Aug	35.0 °C	26 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 42
25 Aug	34.6 °C	30 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 38
26 Aug	35.5 °C	25 %	42 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 42
27 Aug	37.2 °C	18 %	44 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 49
28 Aug	36.7 °C	19 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 48
29 Aug	35.5 °C	20 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 47
30 Aug	34.1 °C	25 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 39
31 Aug	36.2 °C	20 %	33 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 44
1 Sept	36.5 °C	19 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 43
2 Sept	37.2 °C	17 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 47
3 Sept	35.6 °C	22 %	25 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 44
4 Sept	34.2 °C	33 %	33 km/h	0.9 mm	High 28
5 Sept	34.1 °C	34 %	20 km/h	0.3 mm	High 30
6 Sept	36.4 °C	24 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	High 35
7 Sept	33.3 °C	36 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	High 33
8 Sept	36.7 °C	18 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 44
9 Sept	34.9 °C	23 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 45
10 Sept	34.4 °C	27 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 43
11 Sept	36.0 °C	21 %	24 km/h	0.0 mm	High 37
12 Sept	33.6 °C	35 %	23 km/h	0.0 mm	High 36
13 Sept	33.2 °C	38 %	25 km/h	0.2 mm	High 32
14 Sept	34.7 °C	33 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	High 33
15 Sept	35.1 °C	31 %	29 km/h	0.7 mm	High 33
16 Sept after	32.7 °C	39 %	31 km/h	1.8 mm	Moderate 16

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 26 Jul 2026

After · 22 Sept 2026

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.

The smoke

CAMS · Copernicus

On 16 August 2026 the air beside the fire reached 258 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 121: 8.1 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak258 µg/m³

Days over the guideline50 days

PM10264 µg/m³

Optical depth1.80

WHO 15

3112345678910111213141516171819202122232425262728293031123456789101112131415161718

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 · 709Every 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 Democratic Republic of the Congo ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Kongolo fire last?: According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 2 August 2026 to 15 September 2026 (45 days). The perimeter dates it from 9 August 2026 to 11 September 2026.
How much area did it burn?: The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 13,443 hectares (134.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire only entered Kongolo (13,526 ha, 1.0 %).
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 37.2 °C, humidity dropped to 17 % and gusts hit 44 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 49, 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

NASA FIRMS ↗
GWIS · Copernicus ↗

History of this page Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.

No changes since 24 October 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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What do you think is wrong?

Dates or duration Place or towns Burned area Name It was not a wildfire Same fire as another page Something else

What really happened?

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How we know this

Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery.
Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 9 August 2026 to 11 September 2026. 709 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.

Where it burned