How long did the Puerto Suárez fire last?

GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 18 August 2021 and 23 August 2021: 6 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 4,929 hectares (49.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire only entered Puerto Suárez (4,954 ha, 0.4 %).

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 39.8 °C, humidity dropped to 14 % and gusts hit 57 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.

BO · Bolivia · 2021-08-18 → 2021-08-23

Puerto Suárez fire, August 2021 Puerto Suárez

Out · last detection 24 Aug 2021, 17:26 UTC

The fire started on 18 August 2021 in Puerto Suárez, Bolivia, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,929 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 452th largest in Santa Cruz since 2016 (of 834 with a page). Number 82 in Bolivia in 2021, of 155.

Burnt area: 4,929ha; GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration: 6days; 18 Aug 2021 – 23 Aug 2021
Municipalities hit: 1; municipalities
Started on: 18 Aug; 2021
Heat detections: 227; in a single hotspot: 416 MW
Danger at start: 62; Extreme · FWI index
Energy released: 10.4GW; sum of detected power

Play back 24 Aug 2021

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 18 Aug23 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

18192021222324

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

The weather it burned in

40°high

57km/h · peak gust

14%lowest humidity

It had gone 30 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 2.2 mm on 27 Aug.

This area had burned before

48% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 13 ha in 2017, 2,465 ha in 2019.

What happened to each town

Puerto Suárez 33,006 inhabitants where it started

4,954 ha

0.4 %

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)
18 Aug	39.8 °C	17 %	54 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 62
19 Aug	38.8 °C	14 %	57 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 65
20 Aug	39.3 °C	14 %	43 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 56
21 Aug	38.2 °C	17 %	41 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 52
22 Aug	39.5 °C	19 %	55 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 65
23 Aug	38.8 °C	25 %	54 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 58
24 Aug after	39.6 °C	22 %	57 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 61
25 Aug after	36.5 °C	27 %	55 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 52
26 Aug after	25.5 °C	45 %	46 km/h	0.7 mm	High 33
27 Aug after	27.5 °C	44 %	30 km/h	2.2 mm	Moderate 11

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 11 Aug 2021

After · 30 Aug 2021

Before After

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 · 227Every 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 time	Satellite	FRP (MW)	Lat	Lon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Bolivia ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Puerto Suárez fire last?: GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 18 August 2021 and 23 August 2021: 6 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 4,929 hectares (49.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire only entered Puerto Suárez (4,954 ha, 0.4 %).
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 39.8 °C, humidity dropped to 14 % and gusts hit 57 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

Viceministerio de Defensa Civil ↗

Satellite cross-check

NASA FIRMS ↗
GWIS · Copernicus ↗

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.

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What really happened?

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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.

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.

Where it burned