Puerto Suárez fire, 22 July 2020 Puerto Suárez
The fire started on 22 July 2020 in Puerto Suárez, Bolivia, and satellites saw it burning for 8 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 40,736 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 51th largest in Santa Cruz since 2016 (of 834 with a page). Number 12 in Bolivia in 2020, of 211.
- Burnt area
- 40,736ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 8days
- 22 Jul 2020 – 29 Jul 2020
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- municipalities
- Started on
- 22 Jul
- 2020
- Heat detections
- 791
- in a single hotspot: 232 MW
- Danger at start
- 49
- Very high · FWI index
- Energy released
- 13.6GW
- 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 7 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 6.8 mm on 15 Aug.
This area had burned before
85% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 21,421 ha in 2016, 7,110 ha in 2017, 29,851 ha in 2019. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 34,693 ha that had burned before.
- 19,223 ha Puerto Suárez fire, August 2019 151,193 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 5,947 ha Puerto Suárez fire, October 2016 11,048 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 4,359 ha Puerto Suárez fire, December 2016 15,983 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 3,657 ha Bahía Negra fire, September 2016 13,804 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,647 ha Puerto Suárez fire, June 2019 24,785 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,701 ha Puerto Suárez fire, October 2016 3,928 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,395 ha Bahía Negra fire, February 2019 2,794 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,370 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
-
28,703 ha2.1 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 22 Jul | 34.3 °C | 22 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 23 Jul | 34.8 °C | 22 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 24 Jul | 32.4 °C | 33 % | 51 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 50 |
| 25 Jul | 18.9 °C | 52 % | 47 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 26 Jul | 26.3 °C | 40 % | 19 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 27 Jul | 33.7 °C | 24 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 28 Jul | 31.4 °C | 37 % | 42 km/h | 0.4 mm | Very high 44 |
| 29 Jul | 20.2 °C | 39 % | 37 km/h | 0.7 mm | High 27 |
| 30 Jul after | 25.9 °C | 34 % | 18 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 31 Jul after | 31.2 °C | 36 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 1 Aug after | 34.8 °C | 21 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 2 Aug after | 34.7 °C | 19 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 3 Aug after | 34.4 °C | 20 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 4 Aug after | 34.1 °C | 18 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 5 Aug after | 33.9 °C | 17 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 6 Aug after | 34.5 °C | 19 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 7 Aug after | 34.3 °C | 18 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 8 Aug after | 34.9 °C | 18 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 9 Aug after | 35.5 °C | 16 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 10 Aug after | 36.3 °C | 18 % | 48 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 62 |
| 11 Aug after | 35.4 °C | 23 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 50 |
| 12 Aug after | 26.3 °C | 28 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 13 Aug after | 31.1 °C | 36 % | 21 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 14 Aug after | 37.8 °C | 22 % | 59 km/h | 0.1 mm | Extreme 64 |
| 15 Aug after | 33.9 °C | 37 % | 54 km/h | 6.8 mm | Moderate 16 |
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 · 791Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 151,193 haPuerto Suárez19 August 2019 · 8 days · 15 km away
- 30,947 haBahía NegraOctober 2025 · 9 days · 16 km away
- 20,054 haPuerto Suárez8 November 2025 · 6 days · 17 km away
- 23,880 haPuerto Suárez8 September 2017 · 7 days · 25 km away
- 18,695 haBahía Negra24 August 2021 · 3 days · 25 km away
- 24,785 haPuerto SuárezJune 2019 · 5 days · 26 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Puerto Suárez fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 22 July 2020 and 29 July 2020: 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 40,736 hectares (407.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Puerto Suárez (28,703 ha, 2.1 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 34.8 °C, humidity dropped to 17 % and gusts hit 51 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 54, 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.