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BO · Bolivia · –

San Ignacio fire, 10 November 2023 San Ignacio

Out · last detection 22 Nov 2023, 17:52 UTC

The fire started on 10 November 2023 in San Ignacio, Bolivia, and satellites saw it burning for 13 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,773 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 344th largest in Beni since 2016 (of 858 with a page). Number 107 in Bolivia in 2023, of 247.

Burnt area
5,773ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
13days
10 Nov 2023 – 22 Nov 2023
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
10 Nov
2023
Heat detections
166
in a single hotspot: 43 MW
Danger at start
7
Low · FWI index
Average daily power
174MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 10 Nov22 Nov
22 Nov 2023

How it evolved, day by day

10 Nov 2023 · 17 MW · 3 11 Nov 2023 · 8 MW · 2 12 Nov 2023 · 3 MW · 2 13 Nov 2023 · 501 MW · 43 14 Nov 2023 · 148 MW · 9 15 Nov 2023 · 222 MW · 22 16 Nov 2023 · 195 MW · 26 17 Nov 2023 · 190 MW · 17 18 Nov 2023 · 617 MW · 39 20 Nov 2023 · 1 MW · 1 22 Nov 2023 · 15 MW · 2
10 Nov 13 Nov 18 Nov

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

The weather it burned in

41°high
61km/h · peak gust
28%lowest humidity

It had gone 0 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 3.2 mm on 23 Nov.

This area had burned before

1% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 9 ha in 2017, 23 ha in 2019. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 30 ha that had burned before.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 3.6% of the area of London (58 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
    5,808 ha
    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 2025
Built-up area0.44 ha
Residents≈ 50

Inside the perimeter there were about 0.44 hectares of built-up land and about 50 residents (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)
10 Nov 38.0 °C 42 % 40 km/h 0.1 mm Low 7
11 Nov 39.7 °C 31 % 48 km/h 0.1 mm High 22
12 Nov 39.6 °C 31 % 54 km/h 0.1 mm High 26
13 Nov 40.8 °C 33 % 50 km/h 0.9 mm High 25
14 Nov 38.3 °C 39 % 48 km/h 3.3 mm Low 11
15 Nov 39.5 °C 35 % 51 km/h 1.1 mm High 22
16 Nov 39.6 °C 36 % 59 km/h 0.1 mm High 24
17 Nov 40.5 °C 28 % 60 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
18 Nov 40.2 °C 30 % 61 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
19 Nov 34.1 °C 47 % 33 km/h 8.3 mm Very low 2
20 Nov 29.1 °C 77 % 33 km/h 24.7 mm Very low 0
21 Nov 32.0 °C 62 % 47 km/h 6.9 mm Very low 0
22 Nov 34.2 °C 51 % 51 km/h 1.0 mm Very low 3
23 Nov after 36.8 °C 39 % 55 km/h 3.2 mm Low 10

Its twins: fires that started in the same weather

It started with an FWI of 7.2, a minimum humidity of 42% and rain the day before. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 30.

FWI at the start 7.2
Minimum humidity 42 %
Days without rain 0
this fire chosen twins rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar

Outlines of the closest twins

San Ignacio fire, October 2019
4,552 ha 9 days FWI 6.0 Min. humidity 42 % 67 km away, in 2019

First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 4.9 mm on 21 Oct.

What happened to them

10 days
median duration
3,956 ha
median area
7 %
went past 10,000 ha
7.6 mm
rain at the end (median; 30 of 30 had it)

It burned an area similar to its twins (5,773 ha against a median of 3,956 ha) and lasted 13 days, against 10 days.

All of them had rain in the ten days after the end: the first rainy day brought a median of 7.6 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

3.2 mmfirst rain
23 Novthe day after it ended
61km/h · max. gust

It was considered over on 22 Nov, and on 23 Nov 3.2 mm fell. We do not know whether the rain or the firefighters put it out. Twins with rain when they ended: 30 of 30, with a median of 7.6 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 Nov 2023
After · 29 Nov 2023

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 20 November 2023 the air beside the fire reached 320 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 141: 9.4 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak320 µg/m³
Days over the guideline14 days
PM10458 µg/m³
Optical depth3.64
8 Nov11 Nov14 Nov17 Nov20 Nov
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 · 166Every 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 November 2023 to 22 November 2023 (13 days). The perimeter dates it from 10 November 2023 to 18 November 2023.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 5,773 hectares (57.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered San Ignacio (5,808 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 40.8 °C, humidity dropped to 28 % and gusts hit 61 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 37, class 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: 30. Their median duration was 10 days and their median area 3,956 ha; 7 % 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 7.6 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 10 November 2023 to 18 November 2023. 166 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.