Puerto Suárez fire, January 2019 Puerto Suárez
The fire started on 24 January 2019 in Puerto Suárez, Bolivia, and satellites saw it burning for 11 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,004 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 570th largest in Santa Cruz since 2016 (of 834 with a page). Number 166 in Bolivia in 2019, of 219.
- Burnt area
- 4,004ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 11days
- 24 Jan 2019 – 3 Feb 2019
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- municipalities
- Started on
- 24 Jan
- 2019
- Heat detections
- 165
- in a single hotspot: 63 MW
- Danger at start
- 11
- Low · FWI index
- Energy released
- 1.8GW
- 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 4 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 5.4 mm on 4 Feb.
This area had burned before
56% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,522 ha in 2016. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,237 ha that had burned before.
- 1,084 ha Puerto Suárez fire, September 2016 6,916 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 105 ha Bahía Negra fire, September 2016 6,293 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 89 ha Puerto Suárez fire, September 2016 10,885 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
3,912 ha0.3 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 24 Jan | 39.9 °C | 35 % | 22 km/h | 1.4 mm | Low 11 |
| 25 Jan | 37.0 °C | 45 % | 29 km/h | 0.4 mm | Low 11 |
| 26 Jan | 38.4 °C | 40 % | 30 km/h | 0.2 mm | Moderate 12 |
| 27 Jan | 35.9 °C | 48 % | 31 km/h | 1.7 mm | Low 7 |
| 28 Jan | 33.3 °C | 51 % | 44 km/h | 3.7 mm | Very low 3 |
| 29 Jan | 33.7 °C | 50 % | 54 km/h | 0.2 mm | Low 10 |
| 30 Jan | 36.0 °C | 39 % | 48 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 14 |
| 31 Jan | 34.9 °C | 40 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 13 |
| 1 Feb | 37.0 °C | 38 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 14 |
| 2 Feb | 36.7 °C | 40 % | 23 km/h | 0.3 mm | Moderate 15 |
| 3 Feb | 34.5 °C | 51 % | 30 km/h | 19.1 mm | Very low 1 |
| 4 Feb after | 33.2 °C | 55 % | 31 km/h | 5.4 mm | Very low 1 |
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 · 165Every 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 · 21 km away
- 24,785 haPuerto SuárezJune 2019 · 5 days · 23 km away
- 24,736 haCorumbá9 September 2024 · 5 days · 24 km away
- 40,736 haPuerto Suárez22 July 2020 · 8 days · 32 km away
- 28,210 haCorumbá15 September 2016 · 9 days · 35 km away
- 30,947 haBahía NegraOctober 2025 · 9 days · 37 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Puerto Suárez fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 24 January 2019 and 3 February 2019: 11 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 4,004 hectares (40.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Puerto Suárez (3,912 ha, 0.3 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 39.9 °C, humidity dropped to 35 % and gusts hit 54 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 15, 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.