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Puerto Suárez fire, 27 July 2024 Puerto Suárez

Out · last measured on 28 Jul 2024

The fire started on 27 July 2024 in Puerto Suárez, Bolivia, and satellites saw it burning for 2 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 7,732 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 275th largest in Santa Cruz since 2016 (of 834 with a page). Number 106 in Bolivia in 2024, of 295.

We have the GWIS perimeter for this fire, but the VIIRS sensors did not capture it in enough detail: no day-by-day evolution, but the split by municipality is there.

Burnt area
7,732ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
2days
27 Jul 2024 – 28 Jul 2024
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
27 Jul
2024
Danger at start
41
Very high · FWI index

Where it burned

The weather it burned in

37°high
40km/h · peak gust
16%lowest humidity

It had gone 16 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

93% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 3,000 ha in 2016, 532 ha in 2017, 5,336 ha in 2019, 1,413 ha in 2020, 587 ha in 2021, 624 ha in 2022, 1,290 ha in 2023. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 7,165 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Puerto Suárez 33,006 inhabitants where it started
    7,665 ha
    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)
27 Jul 36.8 °C 21 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
28 Jul 37.3 °C 16 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
29 Jul after 26.5 °C 41 % 43 km/h 0.2 mm High 36
30 Jul after 21.9 °C 63 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
31 Jul after 34.4 °C 28 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
1 Aug after 37.7 °C 23 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
2 Aug after 37.9 °C 21 % 60 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
3 Aug after 36.9 °C 24 % 60 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 66
4 Aug after 35.4 °C 24 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
5 Aug after 36.9 °C 25 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
6 Aug after 35.9 °C 17 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
7 Aug after 35.4 °C 25 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 20 Jul 2024
After · 4 Aug 2024

If the day is cloudy, change the date: each satellite passes once a day. In false colour the burnt ground looks brown or red.

The smoke

CAMS · Copernicus

On 28 July 2024 the air beside the fire reached 64 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 48: 3.2 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak64 µg/m³
Days over the guideline5 days
PM1092 µg/m³
Optical depth1.50
25262728293031
Good Fair Moderate Poor Very poor Extremely poor

Particles from the Copernicus CAMS model at the centre of the perimeter; these are not measurements in each town. The pale bar is the worst hour, the solid one the daily average.

Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS)

Other fires nearby

All fires in Bolivia ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Puerto Suárez fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 27 July 2024 and 28 July 2024: 2 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 7,732 hectares (77.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Puerto Suárez (7,665 ha, 0.6 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 37.3 °C, humidity dropped to 16 % and gusts hit 40 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 49, class Very 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.

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.