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Samaipata fire, October 2017 Samaipata, Cabezas

Out · last detection 10 Oct 2017, 17:39 UTC

The fire started on 3 October 2017 in Samaipata, Bolivia, and satellites saw it burning for 8 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,519 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 499th largest in Santa Cruz since 2016 (of 834 with a page). Number 68 in Bolivia in 2017, of 123.

Burnt area
4,519ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
8days
3 Oct 2017 – 10 Oct 2017
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
3 Oct
2017
Heat detections
139
in a single hotspot: 39 MW
Danger at start
2
Very low · FWI index
Energy released
1.3GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

10 Oct 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 3 Oct10 Oct

How it evolved, day by day

34568910

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

The weather it burned in

31°high
87km/h · peak gust
35%lowest humidity

It had gone 0 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 9.6 mm on 13 Oct.

This area had burned before

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

What happened to each town

  1. Samaipata 27,447 inhabitants where it started
    2,642 ha
    1.4 %
  2. Cabezas 32,961 inhabitants
    1,903 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)
3 Oct 23.7 °C 38 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 2
4 Oct 27.3 °C 39 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Low 7
5 Oct 28.3 °C 44 % 87 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 12
6 Oct 30.6 °C 40 % 56 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 11
7 Oct 28.0 °C 51 % 40 km/h 3.1 mm Very low 1
8 Oct 29.0 °C 47 % 73 km/h 0.0 mm Low 9
9 Oct 31.1 °C 35 % 56 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 12
10 Oct 29.7 °C 45 % 72 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
11 Oct after 29.3 °C 45 % 81 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
12 Oct after 29.7 °C 42 % 72 km/h 0.5 mm Moderate 16
13 Oct after 20.7 °C 60 % 46 km/h 9.6 mm Very low 0

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 26 Sept 2017
After · 17 Oct 2017

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 · 139Every 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 timeSatelliteFRP (MW)LatLon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Bolivia ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Samaipata fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 3 October 2017 and 10 October 2017: 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 4,519 hectares (45.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Samaipata (2,642 ha, 1.4 %); Cabezas (1,903 ha, 0.4 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 31.1 °C, humidity dropped to 35 % and gusts hit 87 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 16, 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
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.