Skip to content
worldfires
BO · Bolivia · –

San Ignacio fire, 10 October 2019 San Ignacio

Out · last detection 18 Oct 2019, 06:09 UTC

The fire started on 10 October 2019 in San Ignacio, Bolivia, and satellites saw it burning for 9 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,552 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 478th largest in Beni since 2016 (of 859 with a page). Number 136 in Bolivia in 2019, of 218.

Burnt area
4,552ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
9days
10 Oct 2019 – 18 Oct 2019
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
10 Oct
2019
Heat detections
150
in a single hotspot: 103 MW
Danger at start
8
Low · FWI index
Average daily power
371MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 10 Oct18 Oct
18 Oct 2019

How it evolved, day by day

10 Oct 2019 · 25 MW · 2 12 Oct 2019 · 588 MW · 16 13 Oct 2019 · 490 MW · 43 14 Oct 2019 · 1,289 MW · 53 15 Oct 2019 · 66 MW · 12 17 Oct 2019 · 134 MW · 22 18 Oct 2019 · 2 MW · 2
10 Oct 14 Oct 18 Oct

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

The weather it burned in

37°high
55km/h · peak gust
42%lowest humidity

It had gone 2 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 4.9 mm on 21 Oct.

This area had burned before

55% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,859 ha in 2016. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,521 ha that had burned before.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 2.9% of the area of London (46 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 Ignacio 21,584 inhabitants where it started
    4,570 ha reached on 10 Oct
    0.2 %

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 2020
Built-up area< 0.1 ha
Residents< 20

Inside the perimeter there was no noticeable built-up land and almost nobody lived there (GHSL 2020, 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.

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)
10 Oct 36.7 °C 42 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm Low 8
11 Oct 33.3 °C 54 % 36 km/h 2.0 mm Very low 3
12 Oct 34.6 °C 46 % 47 km/h 0.6 mm Low 9
13 Oct 35.6 °C 45 % 55 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 12
14 Oct 35.2 °C 48 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Low 10
15 Oct 28.6 °C 67 % 35 km/h 11.1 mm Very low 0
16 Oct 26.9 °C 65 % 24 km/h 2.0 mm Very low 1
17 Oct 32.3 °C 56 % 28 km/h 0.2 mm Very low 2
18 Oct 32.3 °C 55 % 25 km/h 12.1 mm Very low 0
19 Oct after 30.7 °C 51 % 35 km/h 0.4 mm Very low 3
20 Oct after 33.3 °C 54 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Low 6
21 Oct after 33.6 °C 52 % 30 km/h 4.9 mm Very low 1

Its twins: fires that started in the same weather

It started with an FWI of 7.7, a minimum humidity of 42% and 2 days without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 17.

FWI at the start 7.7
Minimum humidity 42 %
Days without rain 2
this fire chosen twins rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar

Outlines of the closest twins

San Andrés fire, October 2017
3,772 ha 5 days FWI 8.2 Min. humidity 42 % 112 km away, in 2017

First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 16.4 mm on 20 Oct.

What happened to them

14 days
median duration
4,744 ha
median area
24 %
went past 10,000 ha
12.0 mm
rain at the end (median; 16 of 17 had it)

It burned an area similar to its twins (4,552 ha against a median of 4,744 ha) and lasted 9 days, against 14 days.

In 1 of 17, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 12.0 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

4.9 mmfirst rain
21 Oct3 days after it ended
55km/h · max. gust

It was considered over on 18 Oct, and on 21 Oct 4.9 mm fell. We do not know whether the rain or the firefighters put it out. Twins with rain when they ended: 16 of 17, with a median of 12.0 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 · 3 Oct 2019
After · 25 Oct 2019

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 · 150Every 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 Ignacio fire last?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 10 October 2019 to 18 October 2019 (9 days). The perimeter dates it from 12 October 2019 to 18 October 2019.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 4,552 hectares (45.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered San Ignacio (4,570 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.7 °C, humidity dropped to 42 % and gusts hit 55 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 12, 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.
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: 17. Their median duration was 14 days and their median area 4,744 ha; 24 % went past 10,000 ha. In 1 of 17, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 12.0 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 · 1 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
  1. Start date: 12 October 2019 → 10 October 2019.

RSS Changes to this page With cross-checks and a citable version

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 12 October 2019 to 18 October 2019. 150 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 2020, 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.