Concepción fire, 7 October 2020 Concepción
The fire started on 7 October 2020 in Concepción, Bolivia, and satellites saw it burning for 19 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 21,965 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 95th largest in Santa Cruz since 2016 (of 834 with a page). Number 22 in Bolivia in 2020, of 211.
- Burnt area
- 21,965ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 19days
- 7 Oct 2020 – 25 Oct 2020
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- municipalities
- Started on
- 7 Oct
- 2020
- Heat detections
- 764
- in a single hotspot: 308 MW
- Danger at start
- 28
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 5.3GW
- 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 one day without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.8 mm on 3 Nov.
This area had burned before
2% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 467 ha in 2019.
What happened to each town
-
22,062 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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 7 Oct | 36.7 °C | 31 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 8 Oct | 38.9 °C | 21 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 9 Oct | 37.2 °C | 28 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 10 Oct | 37.2 °C | 29 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 11 Oct | 36.5 °C | 35 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 12 Oct | 35.9 °C | 28 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 13 Oct | 36.9 °C | 33 % | 34 km/h | 0.4 mm | High 35 |
| 14 Oct | 36.9 °C | 33 % | 37 km/h | 0.2 mm | High 36 |
| 15 Oct | 34.1 °C | 43 % | 35 km/h | 8.2 mm | Low 5 |
| 16 Oct | 34.0 °C | 41 % | 40 km/h | 3.0 mm | Low 10 |
| 17 Oct | 35.1 °C | 40 % | 40 km/h | 0.3 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 18 Oct | 35.4 °C | 41 % | 32 km/h | 2.0 mm | Moderate 12 |
| 19 Oct | 31.0 °C | 58 % | 47 km/h | 10.0 mm | Very low 2 |
| 20 Oct | 32.3 °C | 55 % | 36 km/h | 7.8 mm | Very low 1 |
| 21 Oct | 34.1 °C | 47 % | 27 km/h | 1.0 mm | Very low 4 |
| 22 Oct | 35.8 °C | 40 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 13 |
| 23 Oct | 34.5 °C | 48 % | 36 km/h | 3.0 mm | Very low 5 |
| 24 Oct | 34.3 °C | 49 % | 39 km/h | 0.7 mm | Low 9 |
| 25 Oct | 34.4 °C | 49 % | 50 km/h | 1.0 mm | Low 11 |
| 26 Oct after | 33.5 °C | 50 % | 46 km/h | 7.8 mm | Very low 2 |
| 27 Oct after | 32.0 °C | 60 % | 46 km/h | 4.5 mm | Very low 1 |
| 28 Oct after | 32.7 °C | 53 % | 58 km/h | 0.3 mm | Low 6 |
| 29 Oct after | 29.8 °C | 67 % | 40 km/h | 21.7 mm | Very low 0 |
| 30 Oct after | 29.0 °C | 47 % | 52 km/h | 2.4 mm | Very low 1 |
| 31 Oct after | 31.7 °C | 31 % | 50 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 10 |
| 1 Nov after | 33.8 °C | 23 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 16 |
| 2 Nov after | 34.4 °C | 33 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 14 |
| 3 Nov after | 35.7 °C | 34 % | 23 km/h | 1.8 mm | Low 8 |
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.
Detections table · 764Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Concepción fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 7 October 2020 and 25 October 2020: 19 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 21,965 hectares (219.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Concepción (22,062 ha, 0.8 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 38.9 °C, humidity dropped to 21 % and gusts hit 58 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 40, class Very 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.