Baures fire, August 2025 Baures
The fire started on 9 August 2025 in Baures, Bolivia, and satellites saw it burning for 8 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 13,324 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 92th largest in Beni since 2016 (of 902 with a page). Number 10 in Bolivia in 2025, of 94.
- Burnt area
- 13,324ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 8days
- 9 Aug 2025 – 16 Aug 2025
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- municipalities
- Started on
- 9 Aug
- 2025
- Heat detections
- 447
- in a single hotspot: 124 MW
- Danger at start
- 18
- Moderate · FWI index
- Energy released
- 4.2GW
- 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 4 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
90% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,629 ha in 2016, 2,439 ha in 2017, 2,349 ha in 2018, 7,278 ha in 2019, 2,078 ha in 2020, 3,146 ha in 2021, 3,756 ha in 2022. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 11,964 ha that had burned before.
- 4,469 ha Baures fire, September 2019 5,625 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,674 ha Baures fire, September 2022 4,539 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,013 ha Baures fire, September 2020 3,082 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,646 ha Baures fire, September 2018 4,104 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
13,402 ha0.8 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 9 Aug | 24.1 °C | 46 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 18 |
| 10 Aug | 28.1 °C | 43 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 16 |
| 11 Aug | 30.4 °C | 41 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 18 |
| 12 Aug | 31.5 °C | 40 % | 19 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 19 |
| 13 Aug | 32.8 °C | 39 % | 19 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 14 Aug | 33.7 °C | 32 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 15 Aug | 32.9 °C | 29 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 16 Aug | 33.7 °C | 33 % | 14 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 17 Aug after | 34.9 °C | 34 % | 15 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 18 Aug after | 34.7 °C | 42 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 19 Aug after | 34.3 °C | 45 % | 42 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 29 |
| 20 Aug after | 35.4 °C | 42 % | 33 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 26 |
| 21 Aug after | 35.2 °C | 45 % | 28 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 25 |
| 22 Aug after | 35.8 °C | 34 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 23 Aug after | 36.3 °C | 29 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 24 Aug after | 26.2 °C | 46 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 25 Aug after | 26.6 °C | 39 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 26 Aug after | 30.3 °C | 37 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 27 Aug after | 33.2 °C | 36 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
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 16 August 2025 the air beside the fire reached 83 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 40: 2.6 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 · 447Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 12,161 haBaures3 September 2018 · 13 days · 16 km away
- 11,830 haBaures13 October 2016 · 8 days · 21 km away
- 10,456 haBaures2 November 2023 · 20 days · 25 km away
- 20,773 haBaures2 October 2020 · 17 days · 29 km away
- 8,264 haBauresNovember 2025 · 9 days · 32 km away
- 8,496 haPimenteiras do OesteAugust 2016 · 10 days · 39 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Baures fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 9 August 2025 and 16 August 2025: 8 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 13,324 hectares (133.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Baures (13,402 ha, 0.8 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 34.9 °C, humidity dropped to 29 % and gusts hit 42 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 27, class High.
- Where does this data come from?
- From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Bolivia (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.
Emergency number: 119 · 110
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 ADM3 (Public Domain). 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.