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BO · Bolivia · –

San Matías fire, 6 June 2024 San Matías

Out · last detection 29 Jun 2024, 17:26 UTC

The fire started on 6 June 2024 in San Matías, Bolivia, and satellites saw it burning for 24 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,814 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 360th largest in Santa Cruz since 2016 (of 784 with a page). Number 144 in Bolivia in 2024, of 295.

Burnt area
5,814ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
24days
6 Jun 2024 – 29 Jun 2024
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
6 Jun
2024
Heat detections
394
in a single hotspot: 53 MW
Danger at start
32
High · FWI index
Average daily power
155MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 6 Jun29 Jun
29 Jun 2024

How it evolved, day by day

6 Jun 2024 · 1 MW · 1 7 Jun 2024 · 3 MW · 1 8 Jun 2024 · 38 MW · 5 10 Jun 2024 · 20 MW · 3 11 Jun 2024 · 1 MW · 1 12 Jun 2024 · 12 MW · 2 13 Jun 2024 · 38 MW · 7 14 Jun 2024 · 59 MW · 8 16 Jun 2024 · 45 MW · 6 17 Jun 2024 · 29 MW · 6 18 Jun 2024 · 58 MW · 9 19 Jun 2024 · 110 MW · 8 20 Jun 2024 · 18 MW · 5 21 Jun 2024 · 1,657 MW · 101 22 Jun 2024 · 308 MW · 67 23 Jun 2024 · 432 MW · 62 24 Jun 2024 · 213 MW · 41 25 Jun 2024 · 85 MW · 17 26 Jun 2024 · 36 MW · 11 27 Jun 2024 · 14 MW · 12 28 Jun 2024 · 203 MW · 10 29 Jun 2024 · 38 MW · 11
6 Jun 12 Jun 21 Jun 28 Jun

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
48km/h · peak gust
25%lowest humidity

It had gone 12 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

97% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 152 ha in 2017, 514 ha in 2018, 224 ha in 2019, 5,580 ha in 2020, 2,562 ha in 2021, 1,635 ha in 2022, 305 ha in 2023. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 5,657 ha that had burned before.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 3.7% 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 Matías 13,073 inhabitants where it started
    5,825 ha reached on 6 Jun
    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 area0.35 ha
Residents≈ 30

Inside the perimeter there were about 0.35 hectares of built-up land and about 30 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)
6 Jun 35.0 °C 31 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
7 Jun 35.1 °C 29 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
8 Jun 34.9 °C 29 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
9 Jun 34.8 °C 31 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
10 Jun 35.3 °C 30 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
11 Jun 35.6 °C 32 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
12 Jun 35.5 °C 29 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
13 Jun 35.5 °C 29 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
14 Jun 35.6 °C 32 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
15 Jun 35.3 °C 35 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
16 Jun 35.8 °C 30 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
17 Jun 35.6 °C 31 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
18 Jun 35.7 °C 32 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
19 Jun 36.6 °C 30 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
20 Jun 36.0 °C 29 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
21 Jun 36.0 °C 25 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
22 Jun 35.9 °C 29 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
23 Jun 35.5 °C 32 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
24 Jun 35.5 °C 39 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
25 Jun 32.2 °C 45 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
26 Jun 28.2 °C 50 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
27 Jun 29.4 °C 46 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
28 Jun 35.3 °C 28 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
29 Jun 28.5 °C 49 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
30 Jun after 20.2 °C 41 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
1 Jul after 28.5 °C 37 % 18 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
2 Jul after 34.4 °C 30 % 17 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
3 Jul after 35.8 °C 25 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
4 Jul after 36.3 °C 27 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
5 Jul after 36.7 °C 25 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
6 Jul after 28.3 °C 39 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
7 Jul after 29.7 °C 39 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
8 Jul after 22.1 °C 46 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
9 Jul after 20.1 °C 51 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 26

Its twins: fires that started in the same weather

It started with an FWI of 31.7, a minimum humidity of 31% and 12 days without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 33.

FWI at the start 31.7
Minimum humidity 31 %
Days without rain 12
this fire chosen twins rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar

Outlines of the closest twins

Roboré fire, September 2022
6,708 ha 19 days FWI 32.7 Min. humidity 31 % 239 km away, in 2022

First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 1.2 mm on 20 Sept.

What happened to them

18 days
median duration
7,232 ha
median area
36 %
went past 10,000 ha
2.4 mm
rain at the end (median; 28 of 33 had it)

It burned an area similar to its twins (5,814 ha against a median of 7,232 ha) and lasted 24 days, against 18 days.

In 5 of 33, 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 2.4 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

—first rain
—no rain in ten days
48km/h · max. gust

It was considered over on 29 Jun, and not even 1 mm fell in the following ten days: it went out without rain. Twins with rain when they ended: 28 of 33, with a median of 2.4 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 · 30 May 2024
After · 6 Jul 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 26 June 2024 the air beside the fire reached 35 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 19: 1.3 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak35 µg/m³
Days over the guideline1 day
PM1050 µg/m³
Optical depth0.53
8 Jun13 Jun18 Jun23 Jun28 Jun
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 · 394Every 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 Matías fire last?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 6 June 2024 to 29 June 2024 (24 days). The perimeter dates it from 10 June 2024 to 28 June 2024.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 5,814 hectares (58.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered San Matías (5,825 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.6 °C, humidity dropped to 25 % and gusts hit 48 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 64, class Extreme.
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: 33. Their median duration was 18 days and their median area 7,232 ha; 36 % went past 10,000 ha. In 5 of 33, 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 2.4 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 June 2024 to 28 June 2024. 394 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.