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CD · Democratic Republic of the Congo · –

Masi-Manimba fire, 24 May 2021 Feshi, Masi-Manimba

Out · last detection 10 Jun 2021, 12:30 UTC

The fire started on 24 May 2021 in Masi-Manimba, Democratic Republic of the Congo, and satellites saw it burning for 19 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,382 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 134th largest in Kwilu since 2016 (of 151 with a page). Number 82 in Democratic Republic of the Congo in 2021, of 97.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Feshi · 2018Feshi · 2024Feshi · 2016Feshi · 2019

Burnt area
5,382ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
19days
24 May 2021 – 11 Jun 2021
Municipalities hit
2
territories
Started on
24 May
2021
Heat detections
178
in a single hotspot: 186 MW
Danger at start
21
Moderate · FWI index
Average daily power
345MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 24 May11 Jun
10 Jun 2021

How it evolved, day by day

25 May 2021 · 52 MW · 2 26 May 2021 · 6 MW · 2 27 May 2021 · 159 MW · 8 29 May 2021 · 15 MW · 3 31 May 2021 · 525 MW · 31 1 Jun 2021 · 201 MW · 11 2 Jun 2021 · 1,726 MW · 61 3 Jun 2021 · 1,179 MW · 44 4 Jun 2021 · 24 MW · 6 7 Jun 2021 · 196 MW · 5 8 Jun 2021 · 9 MW · 2 10 Jun 2021 · 43 MW · 3
25 May 29 May 2 Jun 7 Jun

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
42km/h · peak gust
19%lowest humidity

It had gone 15 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

85% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,614 ha in 2016, 615 ha in 2017, 1,503 ha in 2018, 2,759 ha in 2019, 1,540 ha in 2020. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 4,563 ha that had burned before.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 3.4% of the area of London (54 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

  1. Feshi
    5,254 ha reached on 26 May
    0.3 %
  2. Masi-Manimba where it started
    158 ha reached on 25 May
    0.0 %

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 2020
Built-up area3.7 ha
Residents≈ 800

Inside the perimeter there were about 3.7 hectares of built-up land and about 800 residents (GHSL 2020, 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.

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)
24 May 32.0 °C 34 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
25 May 32.5 °C 31 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
26 May 33.1 °C 25 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
27 May 33.0 °C 27 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
28 May 33.7 °C 28 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
29 May 33.6 °C 32 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
30 May 32.7 °C 32 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
31 May 34.5 °C 19 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
1 Jun 33.6 °C 22 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
2 Jun 33.8 °C 25 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
3 Jun 32.5 °C 32 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
4 Jun 32.5 °C 36 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
5 Jun 33.2 °C 29 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
6 Jun 31.0 °C 32 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
7 Jun 31.7 °C 42 % 42 km/h 0.3 mm High 28
8 Jun 32.2 °C 36 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
9 Jun 32.9 °C 32 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
10 Jun 32.4 °C 31 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
11 Jun 33.0 °C 30 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
12 Jun after 33.7 °C 27 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
13 Jun after 33.4 °C 20 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
14 Jun after 32.1 °C 26 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
15 Jun after 31.0 °C 28 % 17 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
16 Jun after 32.6 °C 27 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
17 Jun after 30.6 °C 35 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
18 Jun after 31.9 °C 31 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
19 Jun after 32.5 °C 26 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
20 Jun after 31.0 °C 31 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
21 Jun after 30.0 °C 34 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38

Its twins: fires that started in the same weather

It started with an FWI of 20.9, a minimum humidity of 34% and 15 days without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 37.

FWI at the start 20.9
Minimum humidity 34 %
Days without rain 15
this fire chosen twins rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar

Outlines of the closest twins

Feshi fire, June 2018
5,050 ha 16 days FWI 20.9 Min. humidity 32 % 83 km away, in 2018

First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.

See its page Compare with this fire

What happened to them

15 days
median duration
6,138 ha
median area
5 %
went past 10,000 ha
2.7 mm
rain at the end (median; 18 of 37 had it)

It burned an area similar to its twins (5,382 ha against a median of 6,138 ha) and lasted 19 days, against 15 days.

In 19 of 37, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 2.7 mm.

This is a bank of analogues: it shows what usually happens, not what will happen. With fewer than 15 twins we give no figures. How we calculate it

How it ended

—first rain
—no rain in ten days
42km/h · max. gust

It was considered over on 11 Jun, and not even 1 mm fell in the following ten days: it went out without rain. Twins with rain when they ended: 18 of 37, with a median of 2.7 mm.

Weather on this page: Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Climate Change Service (ERA5)

How a twin is chosen

  • Same area: fires that have already ended, less than 250 km from this one, since 2016.
  • Same start: we compare the FWI on the first day, the minimum humidity that day and the run of days without rain before it. The slider sets how much they may differ.
  • Only pages with final weather data (ERA5 reanalysis) calculated in the same way as this fire’s; agricultural and grass burns and pages with data under review are left out.
  • Fires burning at the same time as this one (a week before or after) are left out: they share the same spell of weather and do not count as a precedent.
  • They are sorted by similarity, and the outlines of the first five are drawn.

How we calculate it

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 17 May 2021
After · 18 Jun 2021

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 · 178Every 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 timeSatelliteFRP (MW)LatLon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Democratic Republic of the Congo

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Masi-Manimba fire last?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 24 May 2021 to 11 June 2021 (19 days). The perimeter dates it from 29 May 2021 to 4 June 2021.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 5,382 hectares (53.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Feshi (5,254 ha, 0.3 %); Masi-Manimba (158 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 34.5 °C, humidity dropped to 19 % and gusts hit 42 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 41, 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.
How did the fires that started in similar weather in this area end?
Fires less than 250 km away that started since 2016 with a similar FWI, humidity and dry spell: 37. Their median duration was 15 days and their median area 6,138 ha; 5 % went past 10,000 ha. In 19 of 37, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 2.7 mm.

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 · 2 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
  1. Last day with fire: 4 June 2021 → 11 June 2021.
  2. Start date: 29 May 2021 → 24 May 2021.

RSS Changes to this page With cross-checks and a citable version

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
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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 29 May 2021 to 4 June 2021. 178 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 2020, 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.