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BO · Bolivia · –

San Andrés fire, 19 July 2024 San Andrés

Out · last detection 4 Aug 2024, 05:19 UTC

The fire started on 19 July 2024 in San Andrés, Bolivia, and satellites saw it burning for 17 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,700 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 348th largest in Beni since 2016 (of 859 with a page). Number 146 in Bolivia in 2024, of 295.

Burnt area
5,700ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
17days
19 Jul 2024 – 4 Aug 2024
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
19 Jul
2024
Heat detections
290
in a single hotspot: 77 MW
Danger at start
25
High · FWI index
Average daily power
206MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 19 Jul4 Aug
4 Aug 2024

How it evolved, day by day

19 Jul 2024 · 231 MW · 20 20 Jul 2024 · 242 MW · 13 21 Jul 2024 · 217 MW · 19 22 Jul 2024 · 196 MW · 31 23 Jul 2024 · 614 MW · 53 24 Jul 2024 · 294 MW · 25 25 Jul 2024 · 215 MW · 31 26 Jul 2024 · 502 MW · 30 27 Jul 2024 · 357 MW · 26 28 Jul 2024 · 79 MW · 11 29 Jul 2024 · 60 MW · 4 30 Jul 2024 · 24 MW · 13 2 Aug 2024 · 52 MW · 8 3 Aug 2024 · 6 MW · 5 4 Aug 2024 · 2 MW · 1
19 Jul 23 Jul 28 Jul 2 Aug

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

The weather it burned in

35°high
60km/h · peak gust
32%lowest humidity

It had gone 19 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.7 mm on 5 Aug.

This area had burned before

35% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 569 ha in 2016, 1,156 ha in 2017, 1,173 ha in 2019, 115 ha in 2020, 22 ha in 2021, 864 ha in 2022, 467 ha in 2023. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,011 ha that had burned before.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 3.6% of the area of London (57 km² against 1,583 km²).

London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).

This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.

What happened to each town

  1. San Andrés 15,570 inhabitants where it started
    5,734 ha reached on 19 Jul
    0.6 %

Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the GWIS perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance runs from the point marking the centre of each area to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.

People and buildings inside the perimeter

GHSL 2025
Built-up area< 0.1 ha
Residents< 20

Inside the perimeter there was no noticeable built-up land and almost nobody lived there (GHSL 2025, satellite-based estimate).

This is an estimate on 100 m cells, made from satellite imagery and census data: it does not mean that homes burned or that anyone was harmed. The perimeter also contains land that never burned. The GHSL 2025 epoch is a projection made from 2020 and earlier data.

Source: Global Human Settlement Layer (GHS-BUILT-S and GHS-POP R2023A), European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC), © European Union, CC BY 4.0. Sum inside the perimeter computed by WorldFires. human-settlement.emergency.copernicus.eu

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)
19 Jul 32.6 °C 37 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
20 Jul 32.0 °C 36 % 18 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
21 Jul 33.4 °C 38 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm High 21
22 Jul 31.7 °C 43 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
23 Jul 32.8 °C 37 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
24 Jul 34.0 °C 32 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
25 Jul 34.1 °C 40 % 15 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
26 Jul 34.4 °C 41 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
27 Jul 35.2 °C 36 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
28 Jul 34.3 °C 41 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
29 Jul 28.6 °C 50 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
30 Jul 26.6 °C 48 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
31 Jul 32.7 °C 42 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
1 Aug 34.4 °C 40 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
2 Aug 34.3 °C 41 % 54 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
3 Aug 33.6 °C 46 % 60 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
4 Aug 32.4 °C 55 % 38 km/h 0.6 mm High 27
5 Aug after 34.3 °C 48 % 34 km/h 1.7 mm Moderate 20

Its twins: fires that started in the same weather

It started with an FWI of 24.9, a minimum humidity of 37% and 19 days without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 15.

FWI at the start 24.9
Minimum humidity 37 %
Days without rain 19
this fire chosen twins rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar

Outlines of the closest twins

Loreto fire, July 2016
4,089 ha 11 days FWI 26.0 Min. humidity 37 % 66 km away, in 2016

First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 12.7 mm on 9 Aug.

What happened to them

10 days
median duration
5,655 ha
median area
27 %
went past 10,000 ha
4.8 mm
rain at the end (median; 15 of 15 had it)

It burned an area similar to its twins (5,700 ha against a median of 5,655 ha) and lasted 17 days, against 10 days.

All of them had rain in the ten days after the end: the first rainy day brought a median of 4.8 mm.

This is a bank of analogues: it shows what usually happens, not what will happen. With fewer than 15 twins we give no figures. How we calculate it

How it ended

1.7 mmfirst rain
5 Augthe day after it ended
60km/h · max. gust

It was considered over on 4 Aug, and on 5 Aug 1.7 mm fell. We do not know whether the rain or the firefighters put it out. Twins with rain when they ended: 15 of 15, with a median of 4.8 mm.

Weather on this page: Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Climate Change Service (ERA5)

How a twin is chosen

  • Same area: fires that have already ended, less than 250 km from this one, since 2016.
  • Same start: we compare the FWI on the first day, the minimum humidity that day and the run of days without rain before it. The slider sets how much they may differ.
  • Only pages with final weather data (ERA5 reanalysis) calculated in the same way as this fire’s; agricultural and grass burns and pages with data under review are left out.
  • Fires burning at the same time as this one (a week before or after) are left out: they share the same spell of weather and do not count as a precedent.
  • They are sorted by similarity, and the outlines of the first five are drawn.

How we calculate it

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 12 Jul 2024
After · 11 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 25 July 2024 the air beside the fire reached 120 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 77: 5.2 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak120 µg/m³
Days over the guideline16 days
PM10171 µg/m³
Optical depth0.99
17 Jul21 Jul25 Jul29 Jul2 Aug
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)

Detections table · 290Every 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 San Andrés fire last?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 19 July 2024 to 4 August 2024 (17 days). The perimeter dates it from 19 July 2024 to 31 July 2024.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 5,700 hectares (57.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered San Andrés (5,734 ha, 0.6 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 35.2 °C, humidity dropped to 32 % and gusts hit 60 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 41, 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.
How did the fires that started in similar weather in this area end?
Fires less than 250 km away that started since 2016 with a similar FWI, humidity and dry spell: 15. Their median duration was 10 days and their median area 5,655 ha; 27 % went past 10,000 ha. All of them had rain in the ten days after the end: the first rainy day brought a median of 4.8 mm.

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 · Emergency number and official warnings

Satellite cross-check

History of this page Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.

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.

How we know this
  • Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery.
  • Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 19 July 2024 to 31 July 2024. 290 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
  • We have not matched this page with any official record.
  • Weather: Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, in cells of about 25 km.
  • Built-up area and population come from the JRC Global Human Settlement Layer (epoch 2025, 100 m cells), summed inside the perimeter: an estimate of what was there, not a damage count.

How we build fire pages: methodology

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.