Lodja fire, 14 June 2024 Lodja
The fire started on 14 June 2024 in Lodja, Democratic Republic of the Congo, and satellites saw it burning for 24 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 36,626 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 19th largest in Sankuru since 2016 (of 187 with a page). Number 8 in Democratic Republic of the Congo in 2024, of 133.
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Suggestions: Lodja · 2023Lodja · 2022Lodja · 2020Lodja · 2016
- Burnt area
- 36,626ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 24days
- 14 Jun 2024 – 7 Jul 2024
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- territories
- Started on
- 14 Jun
- 2024
- Heat detections
- 3,677
- in a single hotspot: 405 MW
- Danger at start
- 39
- Very high · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 2.2GW
- detected power per day, on average
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 7 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
98% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 24,109 ha in 2016, 16,864 ha in 2017, 28,343 ha in 2018, 28,673 ha in 2019, 29,579 ha in 2020, 14,083 ha in 2021, 23,760 ha in 2022, 29,162 ha in 2023. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 36,066 ha that had burned before.
- 18,407 ha Lodja fire, July 2023 121,496 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 16,875 ha Lodja fire, June 2022 116,070 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 13,834 ha Lodja fire, June 2020 42,241 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 10,915 ha Lodja fire, June 2016 22,381 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 7,707 ha Lodja fire, July 2018 85,816 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 7,374 ha Lodja fire, June 2019 9,660 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 7,217 ha Lodja fire, June 2019 11,616 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 6,364 ha Lodja fire, June 2016 41,432 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
How big is it?
London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).
Paris boundary: geoBoundaries · Institut national de l'information géographique et forestière (IGN-F) (Etalab Open License 2.0).
Madrid boundary: geoBoundaries · Open Data ESRI, IGN Central Registry of Cartography Area (CC BY 4.0).
Berlin boundary: geoBoundaries · Federal Agency for Cartography and Geodesy (dl-de/by-2-0).
This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.
What happened to each town
-
Lodja where it started36,871 ha reached on 10 Jun2.9 %
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 2025Inside the perimeter there were about 13 hectares of built-up land and about 350 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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 14 Jun | 36.9 °C | 21 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 15 Jun | 36.9 °C | 18 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 16 Jun | 35.2 °C | 23 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 17 Jun | 33.8 °C | 30 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 18 Jun | 35.0 °C | 32 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 19 Jun | 35.4 °C | 29 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 20 Jun | 37.0 °C | 21 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 21 Jun | 37.3 °C | 21 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 22 Jun | 37.1 °C | 23 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 23 Jun | 36.0 °C | 24 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 24 Jun | 36.4 °C | 22 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 25 Jun | 36.6 °C | 15 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 26 Jun | 36.7 °C | 16 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 27 Jun | 36.2 °C | 15 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 28 Jun | 36.8 °C | 16 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 29 Jun | 36.7 °C | 18 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 30 Jun | 36.1 °C | 17 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 1 Jul | 37.5 °C | 15 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 2 Jul | 37.1 °C | 17 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 3 Jul | 35.6 °C | 18 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 4 Jul | 37.1 °C | 16 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 5 Jul | 36.1 °C | 21 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 6 Jul | 35.8 °C | 18 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 7 Jul | 35.6 °C | 23 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 8 Jul after | 33.1 °C | 37 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 9 Jul after | 34.9 °C | 27 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 10 Jul after | 35.0 °C | 23 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 11 Jul after | 36.1 °C | 22 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 12 Jul after | 34.6 °C | 32 % | 23 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 36 |
| 13 Jul after | 35.8 °C | 27 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 14 Jul after | 37.0 °C | 19 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 15 Jul after | 36.6 °C | 20 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 16 Jul after | 35.6 °C | 27 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 17 Jul after | 36.0 °C | 30 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
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 29 June 2024 the air beside the fire reached 401 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 223: 15 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 · 3,677Every 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 · 13 km away
- 121,496 haLodja12 July 2023 · 11 days · 18 km away
- 85,816 haLodja3 July 2018 · 16 days · 22 km away
- 70,422 haLodja18 July 2026 · 17 days · 28 km away
- 100,633 haLodja16 June 2024 · 22 days · 33 km away
- 110,467 haKatako-Kombe23 May 2026 · 52 days · 34 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Lodja fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 14 June 2024 and 7 July 2024: 24 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 36,626 hectares (366.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Lodja (36,871 ha, 2.9 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 37.5 °C, humidity dropped to 15 % and gusts hit 45 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 52, class Extreme.
- 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
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.
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
How we know this
- Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery; 3 polygons grouped in this page.
- Dates from the perimeter: the VIIRS detections inside it did not change them. 3,677 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.
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.