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Pailón fire, July 2018 Pailón, San José

Out · last detection 1 Aug 2018, 17:07 UTC

The fire started on 26 July 2018 in Pailón, Bolivia, and satellites saw it burning for 7 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,541 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 654th largest in Santa Cruz since 2016 (of 834 with a page). Number 61 in Bolivia in 2018, of 80.

Burnt area
3,541ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
7days
26 Jul 2018 – 1 Aug 2018
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
26 Jul
2018
Heat detections
181
in a single hotspot: 280 MW
Danger at start
31
High · FWI index
Energy released
5.0GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

1 Aug 2018
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 26 Jul1 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

27282930311

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

The weather it burned in

33°high
45km/h · peak gust
29%lowest humidity

It had gone 43 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 2.6 mm on 4 Aug.

This area had burned before

77% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 6,227 ha in 2016, 224 ha in 2017. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,714 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Pailón 54,495 inhabitants where it started
    3,424 ha
    0.2 %
  2. San José 60,359 inhabitants
    132 ha
    0.0 %

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 Jul 26.2 °C 37 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
27 Jul 32.2 °C 31 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
28 Jul 33.3 °C 29 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
29 Jul 28.0 °C 42 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
30 Jul 32.7 °C 31 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
31 Jul 26.8 °C 35 % 37 km/h 0.8 mm High 28
1 Aug 29.1 °C 36 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
2 Aug after 27.7 °C 37 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
3 Aug after 30.9 °C 36 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
4 Aug after 23.8 °C 52 % 48 km/h 2.6 mm Low 11

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 19 Jul 2018
After · 8 Aug 2018

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 · 181Every 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 Pailón fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 26 July 2018 and 1 August 2018: 7 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 3,541 hectares (35.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Pailón (3,424 ha, 0.2 %); San José (132 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 33.3 °C, humidity dropped to 29 % and gusts hit 45 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
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.