How long did the Nyunzu fire last?

According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 13 August 2026 to 12 September 2026 (31 days). The perimeter dates it from 18 August 2026 to 7 September 2026.

How much area did it burn?

The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 18,770 hectares (187.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire entered 2 municipalities: Nyunzu (14,228 ha, 0.9 %); Kalemie (4,659 ha, 0.2 %).

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 36.3 °C, humidity dropped to 17 % and gusts hit 54 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.

CD · Democratic Republic of the Congo · 2026-08-13 → 2026-09-12

Nyunzu fire, 13 August 2026 Nyunzu, Kalemie

Out · last detection 13 Sept 2026, 23:29 UTC

The fire started on 13 August 2026 in Nyunzu, Democratic Republic of the Congo, and satellites saw it burning for 31 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 18,770 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 11th largest in Tanganyika since 2016 (of 232 with a page). Number 77 in Democratic Republic of the Congo in 2026, of 523.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Nyunzu · 2023 Nyunzu · 2020 Kalemie · 2026 Kalemie · 2026

Burnt area: 18,770ha; GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration: 31days; 13 Aug 2026 – 12 Sept 2026
Municipalities hit: 2; territories
Started on: 13 Aug; 2026
Heat detections: 870; in a single hotspot: 237 MW
Danger at start: 46; Very high · FWI index
Average daily power: 455MW; detected power per day, on average

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 13 Aug12 Sept

Play back 13 Sept 2026

How it evolved, day by day

13 Aug 19 Aug 25 Aug 27 Aug 30 Aug 4 Sept 9 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

36°high

54km/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: 14.3 mm on 22 Sept.

This area had burned before

69% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 6,645 ha in 2016, 3,244 ha in 2017, 163 ha in 2018, 5,977 ha in 2019, 5,034 ha in 2020, 965 ha in 2022, 5,793 ha in 2023, 2,455 ha in 2024, 2,490 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 12,991 ha that had burned before.

4,329 ha Nyunzu fire, August 2023 6,231 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire

How big is it?

It burned the equivalent of 12% of the area of London (188 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

Nyunzu where it started

14,228 ha reached on 13 Aug

0.9 %
Kalemie

4,659 ha reached on 14 Aug

0.2 %

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 area2.5 ha

Residents≈ 900

Inside the perimeter there were about 2.5 hectares of built-up land and about 900 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)
13 Aug	34.0 °C	17 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 46
14 Aug	33.6 °C	25 %	48 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 49
15 Aug	32.1 °C	28 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 42
16 Aug	32.5 °C	27 %	33 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40
17 Aug	33.9 °C	25 %	33 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 42
18 Aug	33.8 °C	24 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 41
19 Aug	34.1 °C	25 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 41
20 Aug	34.0 °C	22 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40
21 Aug	34.2 °C	24 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 42
22 Aug	34.2 °C	26 %	33 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 41
23 Aug	32.8 °C	29 %	29 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 38
24 Aug	33.7 °C	28 %	47 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 46
25 Aug	34.2 °C	27 %	44 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 43
26 Aug	35.4 °C	22 %	48 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 45
27 Aug	35.2 °C	20 %	54 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 50
28 Aug	35.4 °C	23 %	53 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 51
29 Aug	34.0 °C	22 %	53 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 52
30 Aug	34.8 °C	20 %	48 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 49
31 Aug	35.1 °C	21 %	53 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 51
1 Sept	35.6 °C	20 %	50 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 50
2 Sept	36.0 °C	19 %	50 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 50
3 Sept	36.3 °C	18 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 42
4 Sept	33.3 °C	35 %	31 km/h	3.2 mm	Moderate 13
5 Sept	34.8 °C	31 %	21 km/h	0.0 mm	High 26
6 Sept	35.5 °C	24 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	High 36
7 Sept	34.4 °C	26 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	High 38
8 Sept	35.0 °C	21 %	45 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 45
9 Sept	33.7 °C	25 %	47 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 46
10 Sept	34.5 °C	25 %	49 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 47
11 Sept	34.8 °C	23 %	46 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 46
12 Sept	33.0 °C	31 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	High 35
13 Sept after	34.9 °C	28 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	High 33
14 Sept after	33.9 °C	31 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	High 34
15 Sept after	36.1 °C	28 %	32 km/h	0.1 mm	High 37
16 Sept after	32.3 °C	33 %	33 km/h	0.1 mm	High 34
17 Sept after	33.3 °C	28 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	High 33
18 Sept after	35.2 °C	26 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	High 37
19 Sept after	34.8 °C	25 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	High 38
20 Sept after	36.5 °C	18 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 44
21 Sept after	36.0 °C	26 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 44
22 Sept after	32.3 °C	41 %	23 km/h	14.3 mm	Very low 4

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 6 Aug 2026

After · 19 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 5 September 2026 the air beside the fire reached 135 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 104: 6.9 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak135 µg/m³

Days over the guideline35 days

PM10138 µg/m³

Optical depth2.07

WHO 15

111213141516171819202122232425262728293031123456789101112131415

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 · 870Every 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 Nyunzu fire last?: According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 13 August 2026 to 12 September 2026 (31 days). The perimeter dates it from 18 August 2026 to 7 September 2026.
How much area did it burn?: The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 18,770 hectares (187.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire entered 2 municipalities: Nyunzu (14,228 ha, 0.9 %); Kalemie (4,659 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 36.3 °C, humidity dropped to 17 % and gusts hit 54 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

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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How we know this

Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery; 2 polygons grouped in this page.
Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 18 August 2026 to 7 September 2026. 870 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