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Ixiamas fire, August 2021 Ixiamas

Out · last detection 15 Aug 2021, 18:37 UTC

The fire started on 11 August 2021 in Ixiamas, Bolivia, and satellites saw it burning for 5 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 8,486 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 37th largest in La Paz since 2016 (of 115 with a page). Number 51 in Bolivia in 2021, of 155.

Burnt area
8,486ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
5days
11 Aug 2021 – 15 Aug 2021
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
11 Aug
2021
Heat detections
256
in a single hotspot: 176 MW
Danger at start
32
High · FWI index
Energy released
3.2GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

15 Aug 2021
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 11 Aug15 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

1112131415

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
38km/h · peak gust
31%lowest humidity

It had gone 13 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 2.3 mm on 24 Aug.

This area had burned before

66% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 5,414 ha in 2017, 957 ha in 2019. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 5,620 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Ixiamas 11,828 inhabitants where it started
    8,535 ha
    0.2 %

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)
11 Aug 30.1 °C 39 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
12 Aug 27.9 °C 39 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
13 Aug 29.7 °C 32 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
14 Aug 31.7 °C 31 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
15 Aug 33.4 °C 35 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
16 Aug after 36.1 °C 37 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
17 Aug after 37.4 °C 38 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
18 Aug after 36.9 °C 41 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
19 Aug after 37.6 °C 33 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
20 Aug after 37.5 °C 34 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
21 Aug after 36.6 °C 38 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
22 Aug after 36.9 °C 34 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
23 Aug after 36.9 °C 42 % 47 km/h 0.2 mm High 37
24 Aug after 36.8 °C 46 % 49 km/h 2.3 mm Moderate 18

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 4 Aug 2021
After · 22 Aug 2021

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 · 256Every 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 Bolivia ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Ixiamas fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 11 August 2021 and 15 August 2021: 5 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 8,486 hectares (84.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Ixiamas (8,535 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.1 °C, humidity dropped to 31 % and gusts hit 38 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 32, 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
What do you think is wrong?

We will only use your email to reply about this report. Privacy. This is not an emergency service: if there is a fire now, call 119 · 110.

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.