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Loreto fire, 6 September 2016 Villa Tunari, Loreto

Out · last detection 11 Sept 2016, 17:26 UTC

The fire started on 6 September 2016 in Loreto, Bolivia, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 13,171 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 94th largest in Beni since 2016 (of 902 with a page). Number 19 in Bolivia in 2016, of 187.

Burnt area
13,171ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
6days
6 Sept 2016 – 11 Sept 2016
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
6 Sept
2016
Heat detections
393
in a single hotspot: 388 MW
Danger at start
1
Very low · FWI index
Energy released
5.5GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

11 Sept 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 6 Sept11 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

67891011

Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.

The weather it burned in

37°high
50km/h · peak gust
26%lowest humidity

It had gone 0 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 15.1 mm on 19 Sept.

This area had burned before

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

What happened to each town

  1. Villa Tunari 334,685 inhabitants
    7,610 ha
    0.7 %
  2. Loreto 4,269 inhabitants where it started
    5,625 ha
    0.8 %

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)
6 Sept 22.8 °C 44 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 1
7 Sept 25.8 °C 40 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 4
8 Sept 28.5 °C 41 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Low 7
9 Sept 32.4 °C 42 % 18 km/h 0.0 mm Low 8
10 Sept 34.3 °C 44 % 18 km/h 0.0 mm Low 9
11 Sept 36.4 °C 39 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 11
12 Sept after 37.0 °C 35 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
13 Sept after 34.4 °C 50 % 45 km/h 0.5 mm Moderate 15
14 Sept after 30.3 °C 29 % 32 km/h 5.3 mm Very low 4
15 Sept after 30.8 °C 26 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 13
16 Sept after 33.7 °C 34 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 14
17 Sept after 35.6 °C 41 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
18 Sept after 36.0 °C 43 % 40 km/h 0.3 mm Moderate 16
19 Sept after 26.7 °C 69 % 36 km/h 15.1 mm Very low 0

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 30 Aug 2016
After · 18 Sept 2016

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 · 393Every 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 Loreto fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 6 September 2016 and 11 September 2016: 6 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 13,171 hectares (131.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Villa Tunari (7,610 ha, 0.7 %); Loreto (5,625 ha, 0.8 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 37.0 °C, humidity dropped to 26 % and gusts hit 50 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 18, class Moderate.
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.