Puerto Suárez fire, 13 October 2016 Puerto Suárez
The fire started on 13 October 2016 in Puerto Suárez, Bolivia, and satellites saw it burning for 7 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 11,048 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 195th largest in Santa Cruz since 2016 (of 834 with a page). Number 27 in Bolivia in 2016, of 187.
- Burnt area
- 11,048ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 7days
- 13 Oct 2016 – 19 Oct 2016
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- municipalities
- Started on
- 13 Oct
- 2016
- Heat detections
- 268
- in a single hotspot: 156 MW
- Danger at start
- 3
- Very low · FWI index
- Energy released
- 4.5GW
- 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 0 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 7.5 mm on 24 Oct.
This area had burned before
No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.
What happened to each town
-
10,565 ha0.8 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 13 Oct | 35.7 °C | 48 % | 65 km/h | 6.1 mm | Very low 3 |
| 14 Oct | 36.4 °C | 49 % | 52 km/h | 11.7 mm | Very low 1 |
| 15 Oct | 36.9 °C | 44 % | 61 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 9 |
| 16 Oct | 38.5 °C | 37 % | 71 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 17 |
| 17 Oct | 38.4 °C | 37 % | 61 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 16 |
| 18 Oct | 38.5 °C | 37 % | 57 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 17 |
| 19 Oct | 39.5 °C | 31 % | 55 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 20 Oct after | 32.9 °C | 48 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 17 |
| 21 Oct after | 29.2 °C | 58 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 13 |
| 22 Oct after | 36.0 °C | 42 % | 26 km/h | 0.1 mm | Moderate 14 |
| 23 Oct after | 36.8 °C | 44 % | 30 km/h | 0.1 mm | Moderate 16 |
| 24 Oct after | 33.1 °C | 52 % | 45 km/h | 7.5 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.
Detections table · 268Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 20,054 haPuerto Suárez8 November 2025 · 6 days · 10 km away
- 40,736 haPuerto Suárez22 July 2020 · 8 days · 12 km away
- 24,785 haPuerto SuárezJune 2019 · 5 days · 19 km away
- 19,677 haBahía Negra13 August 2019 · 12 days · 19 km away
- 30,947 haBahía NegraOctober 2025 · 9 days · 21 km away
- 151,193 haPuerto Suárez19 August 2019 · 8 days · 26 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Puerto Suárez fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 13 October 2016 and 19 October 2016: 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 11,048 hectares (110.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Puerto Suárez (10,565 ha, 0.8 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 39.5 °C, humidity dropped to 31 % and gusts hit 71 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 20, 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
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.