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BO · Bolivia · –

San Ignacio fire, 12 September 2025 San Ignacio

Out · last detection 22 Sept 2025, 06:00 UTC

The fire started on 12 September 2025 in San Ignacio, Bolivia, and satellites saw it burning for 11 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,531 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 485th largest in Beni since 2016 (of 859 with a page). Number 32 in Bolivia in 2025, of 60.

Burnt area
4,531ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
11days
12 Sept 2025 – 22 Sept 2025
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
12 Sept
2025
Heat detections
122
in a single hotspot: 142 MW
Danger at start
24
High · FWI index
Average daily power
240MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 12 Sept22 Sept
22 Sept 2025

How it evolved, day by day

12 Sept 2025 · 303 MW · 27 13 Sept 2025 · 433 MW · 21 14 Sept 2025 · 195 MW · 13 15 Sept 2025 · 156 MW · 4 18 Sept 2025 · 122 MW · 2 19 Sept 2025 · 46 MW · 3 20 Sept 2025 · 701 MW · 21 21 Sept 2025 · 179 MW · 24 22 Sept 2025 · 21 MW · 7
12 Sept 14 Sept 18 Sept 20 Sept 22 Sept

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

The weather it burned in

38°high
61km/h · peak gust
30%lowest humidity

It had gone 6 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 2.7 mm on 29 Sept.

This area had burned before

95% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,508 ha in 2016, 2,899 ha in 2017, 283 ha in 2018, 2,631 ha in 2019, 2,094 ha in 2020, 900 ha in 2021, 1,275 ha in 2022, 1,584 ha in 2023. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 4,305 ha that had burned before.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 2.9% of the area of London (45 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
    4,566 ha reached on 12 Sept
    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 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)
12 Sept 37.0 °C 34 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
13 Sept 38.2 °C 30 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
14 Sept 38.4 °C 34 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
15 Sept 38.5 °C 36 % 36 km/h 0.2 mm High 32
16 Sept 38.3 °C 37 % 25 km/h 1.9 mm High 27
17 Sept 32.1 °C 54 % 29 km/h 3.6 mm Very low 4
18 Sept 36.9 °C 38 % 26 km/h 0.6 mm Low 10
19 Sept 36.7 °C 43 % 42 km/h 2.8 mm Moderate 14
20 Sept 37.9 °C 37 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
21 Sept 37.7 °C 36 % 61 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
22 Sept 32.7 °C 41 % 46 km/h 5.2 mm Moderate 20
23 Sept after 29.5 °C 29 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Low 7
24 Sept after 34.8 °C 37 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
25 Sept after 34.0 °C 28 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
26 Sept after 39.2 °C 25 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
27 Sept after 38.7 °C 28 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
28 Sept after 33.3 °C 45 % 32 km/h 0.1 mm High 27
29 Sept after 36.2 °C 44 % 41 km/h 2.7 mm Moderate 18

Its twins: fires that started in the same weather

It started with an FWI of 24.5, a minimum humidity of 34% and 6 days without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 34.

FWI at the start 24.5
Minimum humidity 34 %
Days without rain 6
this fire chosen twins rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar

Outlines of the closest twins

Loreto fire, November 2023
11,772 ha 8 days FWI 23.7 Min. humidity 34 % 72 km away, in 2023

First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 7.2 mm on 19 Nov.

What happened to them

12 days
median duration
4,168 ha
median area
18 %
went past 10,000 ha
6.8 mm
rain at the end (median; 32 of 34 had it)

It burned an area similar to its twins (4,531 ha against a median of 4,168 ha) and lasted 11 days, against 12 days.

In 2 of 34, 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 6.8 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

2.7 mmfirst rain
29 Sept7 days after it ended
61km/h · max. gust

It was considered over on 22 Sept, and on 29 Sept 2.7 mm fell. We do not know whether the rain or the firefighters put it out. Twins with rain when they ended: 32 of 34, with a median of 6.8 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 · 5 Sept 2025
After · 29 Sept 2025

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 16 September 2025 the air beside the fire reached 146 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 65: 4.3 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak146 µg/m³
Days over the guideline9 days
PM10147 µg/m³
Optical depth1.04
14 Sept17 Sept20 Sept23 Sept
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 · 122Every 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 12 September 2025 to 22 September 2025 (11 days). The perimeter dates it from 16 September 2025 to 22 September 2025.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 4,531 hectares (45.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered San Ignacio (4,566 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 38.5 °C, humidity dropped to 30 % and gusts hit 61 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 39, 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: 34. Their median duration was 12 days and their median area 4,168 ha; 18 % went past 10,000 ha. In 2 of 34, 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 6.8 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 · 1 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
  1. Start date: 16 September 2025 → 12 September 2025.

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 16 September 2025 to 22 September 2025. 122 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.