Loreto fire, 26 August 2022 Loreto, San Andrés
The fire started on 26 August 2022 in Loreto, Bolivia, and satellites saw it burning for 9 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,926 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 445th largest in Beni since 2016 (of 902 with a page). Number 113 in Bolivia in 2022, of 222.
The power measured by the satellite is low (26.2 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.
- Burnt area
- 4,926ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 9days
- 26 Aug 2022 – 3 Sept 2022
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- municipalities
- Started on
- 26 Aug
- 2022
- Heat detections
- 139
- in a single hotspot: 26 MW
- Danger at start
- 15
- Moderate · FWI index
- Energy released
- 1.1GW
- 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 7 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 3.7 mm on 10 Sept.
This area had burned before
96% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 3,602 ha in 2016, 477 ha in 2017, 2,313 ha in 2018, 4,050 ha in 2019, 2,938 ha in 2020, 1,195 ha in 2021. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 4,727 ha that had burned before.
- 2,766 ha Loreto fire, September 2019 4,232 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,731 ha San Andrés fire, October 2020 9,980 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 716 ha Loreto fire, September 2016 3,359 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 167 ha Loreto fire, September 2019 3,339 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
2,490 ha0.4 %
-
San Andrés 15,570 inhabitants2,464 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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 26 Aug | 33.0 °C | 46 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 15 |
| 27 Aug | 33.6 °C | 45 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 19 |
| 28 Aug | 32.6 °C | 28 % | 52 km/h | 1.4 mm | High 25 |
| 29 Aug | 26.4 °C | 28 % | 55 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 30 Aug | 28.4 °C | 29 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 23 |
| 31 Aug | 32.1 °C | 38 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 1 Sept | 33.9 °C | 38 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 2 Sept | 31.6 °C | 33 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 3 Sept | 28.3 °C | 31 % | 52 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 4 Sept after | 29.0 °C | 29 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 5 Sept after | 29.4 °C | 26 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 6 Sept after | 31.8 °C | 27 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 7 Sept after | 33.7 °C | 32 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 8 Sept after | 34.7 °C | 40 % | 51 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 9 Sept after | 34.9 °C | 41 % | 43 km/h | 0.2 mm | High 29 |
| 10 Sept after | 26.4 °C | 45 % | 42 km/h | 3.7 mm | Low 7 |
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 6 September 2022 the air beside the fire reached 450 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 138: 9.2 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 · 139Every 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 Loreto fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 26 August 2022 and 3 September 2022: 9 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 4,926 hectares (49.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Loreto (2,490 ha, 0.4 %); San Andrés (2,464 ha, 0.2 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 33.9 °C, humidity dropped to 28 % and gusts hit 55 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
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.