Puerto Suárez fire, 19 August 2019 Puerto Suárez
The fire started on 19 August 2019 in Puerto Suárez, Bolivia, and satellites saw it burning for 8 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 151,193 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
This page is probably a fire complex, not a single fire. GWIS merges into one perimeter the fires that touch over weeks, which in large burning seasons can join dozens of separate fires. The total area is reliable; the origin and dates refer to the whole complex.
It is the 11th largest in Santa Cruz since 2016 (of 834 with a page). Number 4 in Bolivia in 2019, of 219.
- Burnt area
- 151,193ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 8days
- 19 Aug 2019 – 26 Aug 2019
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- municipalities
- Started on
- 19 Aug
- 2019
- Heat detections
- 2,977
- in a single hotspot: 319 MW
- Danger at start
- 49
- Very high · FWI index
- Energy released
- 63.6GW
- 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 38 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 2.6 mm on 3 Sept.
This area had burned before
58% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 40,434 ha in 2016, 61,410 ha in 2017. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 87,717 ha that had burned before.
- 8,926 ha Puerto Suárez fire, September 2017 23,880 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 7,582 ha Puerto Suárez fire, December 2016 15,983 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 6,951 ha Puerto Suárez fire, October 2016 11,048 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 6,730 ha Corumbá fire, September 2017 13,368 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 5,769 ha Puerto Suárez fire, July 2017 9,620 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 5,549 ha Corumbá fire, October 2016 8,056 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 5,058 ha Bahía Negra fire, September 2016 13,804 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 3,780 ha Puerto Suárez fire, September 2016 6,916 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
83,074 ha6.2 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 12 Aug | 37.1 °C | 20 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 13 Aug | 26.6 °C | 34 % | 58 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 14 Aug | 22.6 °C | 31 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 15 Aug | 31.0 °C | 38 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 16 Aug | 35.1 °C | 22 % | 48 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 17 Aug | 37.0 °C | 22 % | 57 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 63 |
| 18 Aug | 36.9 °C | 25 % | 61 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 65 |
| 19 Aug | 27.6 °C | 37 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 20 Aug | 28.2 °C | 38 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 21 Aug | 31.2 °C | 37 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 22 Aug | 35.3 °C | 28 % | 47 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 23 Aug | 30.7 °C | 40 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 24 Aug | 34.2 °C | 30 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 25 Aug | 35.7 °C | 25 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 50 |
| 26 Aug | 35.6 °C | 29 % | 42 km/h | 0.1 mm | Very high 49 |
| 27 Aug after | 32.3 °C | 43 % | 31 km/h | 4.0 mm | Moderate 12 |
| 28 Aug after | 33.0 °C | 36 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 29 Aug after | 36.6 °C | 25 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 30 Aug after | 37.5 °C | 23 % | 48 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 31 Aug after | 32.6 °C | 38 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 1 Sept after | 25.8 °C | 47 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 2 Sept after | 27.4 °C | 47 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 3 Sept after | 29.4 °C | 39 % | 35 km/h | 2.6 mm | Moderate 14 |
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 · 2,977Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 40,736 haPuerto Suárez22 July 2020 · 8 days · 15 km away
- 20,692 haPuerto Suárez5 August 2024 · 3 days · 16 km away
- 15,983 haPuerto SuárezDecember 2016 · 17 days · 16 km away
- 30,947 haBahía NegraOctober 2025 · 9 days · 24 km away
- 23,880 haPuerto Suárez8 September 2017 · 7 days · 24 km away
- 20,054 haPuerto Suárez8 November 2025 · 6 days · 28 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Puerto Suárez fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 19 August 2019 and 26 August 2019: 8 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 151,193 hectares (1,511.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Puerto Suárez (83,074 ha, 6.2 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 37.5 °C, humidity dropped to 20 % and gusts hit 61 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 65, class Extreme.
- 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.