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CD · Democratic Republic of the Congo · –

Masi-Manimba fire, 3 June 2022 Masi-Manimba

Out · last detection 14 Jun 2022, 12:12 UTC

The fire started on 3 June 2022 in Masi-Manimba, Democratic Republic of the Congo, and satellites saw it burning for 12 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 9,870 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 35th largest in Kwilu since 2016 (of 151 with a page). Number 19 in Democratic Republic of the Congo in 2022, of 106.

Burnt area
9,870ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
12days
3 Jun 2022 – 14 Jun 2022
Municipalities hit
1
territories
Started on
3 Jun
2022
Heat detections
215
in a single hotspot: 88 MW
Danger at start
22
High · FWI index
Average daily power
257MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 3 Jun14 Jun
14 Jun 2022

How it evolved, day by day

3 Jun 2022 · 32 MW · 5 4 Jun 2022 · 8 MW · 2 5 Jun 2022 · 84 MW · 6 6 Jun 2022 · 67 MW · 6 7 Jun 2022 · 158 MW · 5 8 Jun 2022 · 180 MW · 21 9 Jun 2022 · 924 MW · 71 10 Jun 2022 · 191 MW · 20 11 Jun 2022 · 1,374 MW · 67 12 Jun 2022 · 19 MW · 4 13 Jun 2022 · 39 MW · 4 14 Jun 2022 · 13 MW · 4
3 Jun 6 Jun 11 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
38km/h · peak gust
20%lowest humidity

It had gone 4 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 11.7 mm on 22 Jun.

This area had burned before

85% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 3,131 ha in 2016, 51 ha in 2017, 4,776 ha in 2018, 2,716 ha in 2019, 2,962 ha in 2020, 5,102 ha in 2021. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 8,367 ha that had burned before.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 6.2% of the area of London (99 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. Masi-Manimba where it started
    9,942 ha reached on 3 Jun
    0.7 %

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 area4.5 ha
Residents≈ 500

Inside the perimeter there were about 4.5 hectares of built-up land and about 500 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)
3 Jun 32.9 °C 28 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
4 Jun 33.7 °C 27 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
5 Jun 33.6 °C 26 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
6 Jun 32.7 °C 24 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
7 Jun 32.1 °C 26 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
8 Jun 32.4 °C 23 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
9 Jun 32.2 °C 23 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
10 Jun 32.4 °C 22 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
11 Jun 33.3 °C 20 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
12 Jun 33.0 °C 27 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
13 Jun 32.3 °C 28 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
14 Jun 29.6 °C 42 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
15 Jun after 31.8 °C 35 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
16 Jun after 31.5 °C 37 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
17 Jun after 32.9 °C 24 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
18 Jun after 29.6 °C 38 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
19 Jun after 30.3 °C 36 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
20 Jun after 30.5 °C 42 % 18 km/h 0.1 mm High 22
21 Jun after 30.6 °C 44 % 18 km/h 0.9 mm Moderate 14
22 Jun after 27.2 °C 59 % 28 km/h 11.7 mm Very low 1

Its twins: fires that started in the same weather

It started with an FWI of 21.5, a minimum humidity of 28% and 4 days without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 28.

FWI at the start 21.5
Minimum humidity 28 %
Days without rain 4
this fire chosen twins rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar

Outlines of the closest twins

Masi-Manimba fire, June 2018
6,222 ha 14 days FWI 16.0 Min. humidity 28 % 41 km away, in 2018

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

What happened to them

14 days
median duration
6,128 ha
median area
14 %
went past 10,000 ha
4.4 mm
rain at the end (median; 9 of 28 had it)

It was 1.6 times larger than the median of its twins and lasted 12 days, against 14 days.

Only 4 of its 28 twins burned more. The weather on the first day does not explain everything: the wind in the following days, the fuel and the firefighting also count. In 19 of 28, 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 4.4 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

11.7 mmfirst rain
22 Jun8 days after it ended
38km/h · max. gust

It was considered over on 14 Jun, and on 22 Jun 11.7 mm fell. We do not know whether the rain or the firefighters put it out. Twins with rain when they ended: 9 of 28, with a median of 4.4 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 · 27 May 2022
After · 21 Jun 2022

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 · 215Every 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 3 June 2022 to 14 June 2022 (12 days). The perimeter dates it from 9 June 2022 to 14 June 2022.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 9,870 hectares (98.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Masi-Manimba (9,942 ha, 0.7 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 33.7 °C, humidity dropped to 20 % and gusts hit 38 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 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: 28. Their median duration was 14 days and their median area 6,128 ha; 14 % went past 10,000 ha. Only 4 of its 28 twins burned more. The weather on the first day does not explain everything: the wind in the following days, the fuel and the firefighting also count. In 19 of 28, 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 4.4 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 · 1 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
  1. Start date: 9 June 2022 → 3 June 2022.

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.

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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 June 2022 to 14 June 2022. 215 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.