Lodja fire, 24 June 2017 Lodja
The fire started on 24 June 2017 in Lodja, Congo - Kinshasa, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 6,480 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 137th largest in Sankuru since 2016 (of 187 with a page). Number 71 in Congo - Kinshasa in 2017, of 138.
- Burnt area
- 6,480ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 6days
- 24 Jun 2017 – 29 Jun 2017
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- territories
- Started on
- 24 Jun
- 2017
- Heat detections
- 349
- in a single hotspot: 58 MW
- Danger at start
- 21
- Moderate · FWI index
- Energy released
- 2.9GW
- 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 6 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 8.1 mm on 6 Jul.
This area had burned before
65% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 4,534 ha in 2016. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 4,183 ha that had burned before.
What happened to each town
-
Lodja where it started6,524 ha reached on 22 Jun0.5 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 24 Jun | 32.7 °C | 40 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 25 Jun | 31.3 °C | 45 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 26 Jun | 32.7 °C | 43 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 27 Jun | 35.2 °C | 21 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 28 Jun | 33.1 °C | 27 % | 21 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 29 Jun | 30.5 °C | 47 % | 27 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 24 |
| 30 Jun after | 33.2 °C | 37 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 23 |
| 1 Jul after | 34.1 °C | 28 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 2 Jul after | 32.0 °C | 36 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 3 Jul after | 33.3 °C | 36 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 4 Jul after | 33.3 °C | 36 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 5 Jul after | 32.8 °C | 39 % | 25 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 29 |
| 6 Jul after | 31.3 °C | 51 % | 27 km/h | 8.1 mm | Very low 4 |
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 · 349Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 116,070 haLodja21 June 2022 · 28 days · 11 km away
- 121,496 haLodja12 July 2023 · 11 days · 19 km away
- 85,816 haLodja3 July 2018 · 16 days · 22 km away
- 70,422 haLodja18 July 2026 · 17 days · 29 km away
- 110,467 haKatako-Kombe23 May 2026 · 52 days · 32 km away
- 100,633 haLodja16 June 2024 · 22 days · 35 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Lodja fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 24 June 2017 and 29 June 2017: 6 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 6,480 hectares (64.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Lodja (6,524 ha, 0.5 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 35.2 °C, humidity dropped to 21 % and gusts hit 36 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 33, 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.