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BO · Bolivia · –

San Joaquín fire, 26 August 2024 San Joaquín

Out · last detection 10 Sept 2024, 17:59 UTC

The fire started on 26 August 2024 in San Joaquín, Bolivia, and satellites saw it burning for 16 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,778 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 621th largest in Beni since 2016 (of 859 with a page). Number 224 in Bolivia in 2024, of 295.

Burnt area
3,778ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
16days
26 Aug 2024 – 10 Sept 2024
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
26 Aug
2024
Heat detections
105
in a single hotspot: 115 MW
Danger at start
28
High · FWI index
Average daily power
94MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 26 Aug10 Sept
10 Sept 2024

How it evolved, day by day

26 Aug 2024 · 5 MW · 1 27 Aug 2024 · 5 MW · 1 28 Aug 2024 · 21 MW · 2 29 Aug 2024 · 509 MW · 9 30 Aug 2024 · 33 MW · 7 1 Sept 2024 · 94 MW · 9 2 Sept 2024 · 54 MW · 3 3 Sept 2024 · 215 MW · 10 4 Sept 2024 · 8 MW · 1 5 Sept 2024 · 8 MW · 2 6 Sept 2024 · 28 MW · 2 7 Sept 2024 · 226 MW · 31 8 Sept 2024 · 178 MW · 23 9 Sept 2024 · 18 MW · 3 10 Sept 2024 · 5 MW · 1
26 Aug 29 Aug 2 Sept 5 Sept 8 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
43km/h · peak gust
28%lowest humidity

It had gone 16 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.7 mm on 15 Sept.

This area had burned before

79% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 364 ha in 2016, 625 ha in 2019, 2,508 ha in 2020, 1,582 ha in 2022. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,966 ha that had burned before.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 2.4% of the area of London (38 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 Joaquín 6,808 inhabitants where it started
    3,805 ha reached on 26 Aug
    0.4 %

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)
26 Aug 25.7 °C 28 % 38 km/h 0.2 mm High 28
27 Aug 30.3 °C 31 % 18 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
28 Aug 33.1 °C 34 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
29 Aug 36.7 °C 32 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
30 Aug 36.3 °C 35 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
31 Aug 36.6 °C 35 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
1 Sept 32.7 °C 36 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
2 Sept 33.5 °C 33 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
3 Sept 36.2 °C 33 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
4 Sept 36.4 °C 40 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
5 Sept 31.1 °C 37 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
6 Sept 31.4 °C 33 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
7 Sept 34.7 °C 34 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
8 Sept 36.3 °C 38 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
9 Sept 37.1 °C 38 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
10 Sept 37.8 °C 35 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
11 Sept after 37.0 °C 40 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
12 Sept after 36.5 °C 44 % 35 km/h 0.2 mm High 38
13 Sept after 38.1 °C 37 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
14 Sept after 38.1 °C 35 % 29 km/h 0.9 mm High 33
15 Sept after 28.0 °C 48 % 34 km/h 1.7 mm Moderate 12

Its twins: fires that started in the same weather

It started with an FWI of 27.7, a minimum humidity of 28% and 16 days without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 30.

FWI at the start 27.7
Minimum humidity 28 %
Days without rain 16
this fire chosen twins rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar

Outlines of the closest twins

Exaltación fire, August 2020
6,671 ha 19 days FWI 28.9 Min. humidity 29 % 98 km away, in 2020

First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 1.9 mm on 30 Aug.

What happened to them

9 days
median duration
4,690 ha
median area
20 %
went past 10,000 ha
3.6 mm
rain at the end (median; 25 of 30 had it)

It burned an area similar to its twins (3,778 ha against a median of 4,690 ha) and lasted 16 days, against 9 days.

In 5 of 30, 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 3.6 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

1.7 mmfirst rain
15 Sept5 days after it ended
43km/h · max. gust

It was considered over on 10 Sept, and on 15 Sept 1.7 mm fell. We do not know whether the rain or the firefighters put it out. Twins with rain when they ended: 25 of 30, with a median of 3.6 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 · 19 Aug 2024
After · 17 Sept 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 7 September 2024 the air beside the fire reached 220 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 179: 12 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak220 µg/m³
Days over the guideline20 days
PM10315 µg/m³
Optical depth6.41
25 Aug29 Aug2 Sept6 Sept10 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 · 105Every 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 Joaquín fire last?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 26 August 2024 to 10 September 2024 (16 days). The perimeter dates it from 27 August 2024 to 10 September 2024.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 3,778 hectares (37.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered San Joaquín (3,805 ha, 0.4 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 37.8 °C, humidity dropped to 28 % and gusts hit 43 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 46, 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: 30. Their median duration was 9 days and their median area 4,690 ha; 20 % went past 10,000 ha. In 5 of 30, 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 3.6 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 · 1 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
  1. Start date: 27 August 2024 → 26 August 2024.

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 27 August 2024 to 10 September 2024. 105 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.