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Puerto Suárez fire, 2 September 2017 Puerto Suárez, El Carmen Rivero Tórrez

Out · last detection 21 Sept 2017, 16:54 UTC

The fire started on 2 September 2017 in Puerto Suárez, Bolivia, and satellites saw it burning for 20 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 14,838 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 154th largest in Santa Cruz since 2016 (of 834 with a page). Number 12 in Bolivia in 2017, of 123.

Compare with…

Suggestions: El Carmen Rivero Tórrez · 2019Puerto Suárez · 2019

Burnt area
14,838ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
20days
2 Sept 2017 – 21 Sept 2017
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
2 Sept
2017
Heat detections
667
in a single hotspot: 145 MW
Danger at start
29
High · FWI index
Average daily power
429MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 2 Sept21 Sept
21 Sept 2017

How it evolved, day by day

2 Sept 2017 · 365 MW · 10 3 Sept 2017 · 256 MW · 28 4 Sept 2017 · 751 MW · 54 5 Sept 2017 · 392 MW · 49 6 Sept 2017 · 776 MW · 80 7 Sept 2017 · 1,795 MW · 129 8 Sept 2017 · 1,814 MW · 166 9 Sept 2017 · 242 MW · 50 10 Sept 2017 · 24 MW · 4 11 Sept 2017 · 183 MW · 15 12 Sept 2017 · 48 MW · 8 13 Sept 2017 · 178 MW · 20 14 Sept 2017 · 257 MW · 32 15 Sept 2017 · 151 MW · 11 18 Sept 2017 · 6 MW · 1 20 Sept 2017 · 2 MW · 1 21 Sept 2017 · 46 MW · 9
2 Sept 5 Sept 8 Sept 11 Sept 14 Sept 20 Sept

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

The weather it burned in

38°high
55km/h · peak gust
25%lowest humidity

It had gone 14 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 3.3 mm on 27 Sept.

This area had burned before

4% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 629 ha in 2016.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 9.4% of the area of London (148 km² against 1,583 km²).

London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).

This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.

What happened to each town

  1. Puerto Suárez 33,006 inhabitants where it started
    8,577 ha reached on 2 Sept
    0.6 %
  2. El Carmen Rivero Tórrez 8,816 inhabitants
    6,291 ha reached on 2 Sept
    0.6 %

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)
2 Sept 36.1 °C 28 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
3 Sept 36.1 °C 28 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
4 Sept 35.6 °C 31 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
5 Sept 29.1 °C 45 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
6 Sept 32.3 °C 41 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
7 Sept 35.2 °C 29 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
8 Sept 35.8 °C 33 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
9 Sept 36.7 °C 34 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
10 Sept 36.3 °C 39 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
11 Sept 30.3 °C 46 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
12 Sept 34.3 °C 43 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
13 Sept 36.4 °C 38 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
14 Sept 36.4 °C 31 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
15 Sept 34.3 °C 46 % 40 km/h 9.2 mm Low 8
16 Sept 27.1 °C 50 % 55 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 17
17 Sept 28.4 °C 48 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
18 Sept 34.7 °C 35 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
19 Sept 37.2 °C 28 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
20 Sept 37.7 °C 25 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
21 Sept 35.6 °C 34 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
22 Sept after 33.8 °C 38 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
23 Sept after 32.4 °C 44 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
24 Sept after 34.1 °C 40 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
25 Sept after 37.7 °C 32 % 26 km/h 0.2 mm High 26
26 Sept after 34.1 °C 39 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
27 Sept after 36.1 °C 36 % 34 km/h 3.3 mm Low 11

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 26 Aug 2017
After · 28 Sept 2017

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 · 667Every 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 Puerto Suárez fire last?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 2 September 2017 to 21 September 2017 (20 days). The perimeter dates it from 2 September 2017 to 15 September 2017.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 14,838 hectares (148.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Puerto Suárez (8,577 ha, 0.6 %); El Carmen Rivero Tórrez (6,291 ha, 0.6 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 37.7 °C, humidity dropped to 25 % and gusts hit 55 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 36, 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.

How we know this
  • Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery.
  • Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 2 September 2017 to 15 September 2017. 667 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
  • We have not matched this page with any official record.
  • Weather: Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, in cells of about 25 km.

How we build fire pages: methodology ›

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.