Concepción fire, 10 October 2023 Concepción
The fire started on 10 October 2023 in Concepción, Bolivia, and satellites saw it burning for 16 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 6,511 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 332th largest in Santa Cruz since 2016 (of 834 with a page). Number 96 in Bolivia in 2023, of 248.
- Burnt area
- 6,511ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 16days
- 10 Oct 2023 – 25 Oct 2023
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- municipalities
- Started on
- 10 Oct
- 2023
- Heat detections
- 359
- in a single hotspot: 232 MW
- Danger at start
- 21
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 6.3GW
- 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 5 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 14.9 mm on 28 Oct.
This area had burned before
0% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 10 ha in 2021.
What happened to each town
-
6,537 ha0.2 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6 Oct | 36.0 °C | 43 % | 64 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 21 |
| 7 Oct | 35.1 °C | 44 % | 47 km/h | 1.0 mm | Moderate 15 |
| 8 Oct | 26.8 °C | 63 % | 30 km/h | 2.2 mm | Very low 4 |
| 9 Oct | 32.0 °C | 52 % | 23 km/h | 0.2 mm | Low 9 |
| 10 Oct | 36.0 °C | 43 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 17 |
| 11 Oct | 35.0 °C | 46 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 18 |
| 12 Oct | 35.3 °C | 43 % | 30 km/h | 2.3 mm | Low 9 |
| 13 Oct | 27.9 °C | 52 % | 31 km/h | 2.0 mm | Low 5 |
| 14 Oct | 34.1 °C | 45 % | 23 km/h | 0.1 mm | Moderate 13 |
| 15 Oct | 35.3 °C | 49 % | 30 km/h | 0.2 mm | Moderate 15 |
| 16 Oct | 36.5 °C | 39 % | 41 km/h | 0.3 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 17 Oct | 35.5 °C | 46 % | 33 km/h | 0.9 mm | Moderate 16 |
| 18 Oct | 36.5 °C | 38 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 18 |
| 19 Oct | 38.6 °C | 37 % | 26 km/h | 0.2 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 20 Oct | 37.0 °C | 40 % | 22 km/h | 0.2 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 21 Oct | 38.1 °C | 35 % | 28 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 23 |
| 22 Oct | 38.5 °C | 33 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 23 Oct | 36.7 °C | 41 % | 42 km/h | 0.3 mm | High 28 |
| 24 Oct | 36.2 °C | 46 % | 42 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 26 |
| 25 Oct | 35.3 °C | 48 % | 32 km/h | 1.0 mm | Moderate 16 |
| 26 Oct after | 27.7 °C | 73 % | 41 km/h | 9.6 mm | Very low 0 |
| 27 Oct after | 34.3 °C | 48 % | 54 km/h | 0.5 mm | Low 9 |
| 28 Oct after | 31.5 °C | 58 % | 55 km/h | 14.9 mm | Very low 2 |
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 28 October 2023 the air beside the fire reached 66 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 44: 2.9 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 · 359Every 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 10 October 2023 and 25 October 2023: 16 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 6,511 hectares (65.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Concepción (6,537 ha, 0.2 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 38.6 °C, humidity dropped to 33 % and gusts hit 64 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 28, 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.