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San Miguel fire, August 2017 San Miguel, San Ignacio

Out · last detection 1 Oct 2017, 17:08 UTC

The fire started on 19 August 2017 in San Miguel, Bolivia, and satellites saw it burning for 44 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 25,140 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 80th largest in Santa Cruz since 2016 (of 837 with a page). Number 2 in Bolivia in 2017, of 123.

Compare with…

Suggestions: San Miguel · 2016San Miguel · 2018San Miguel · 2019San Ignacio · 2020

Burnt area
25,140ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
44days
19 Aug 2017 – 1 Oct 2017
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
19 Aug
2017
Heat detections
2,677
in a single hotspot: 144 MW
Danger at start
4
Very low · FWI index
Average daily power
619MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 19 Aug1 Oct
1 Oct 2017

How it evolved, day by day

22 Aug 2017 · 13 MW · 6 23 Aug 2017 · 5 MW · 2 25 Aug 2017 · 32 MW · 12 26 Aug 2017 · 18 MW · 5 27 Aug 2017 · 138 MW · 6 28 Aug 2017 · 320 MW · 16 29 Aug 2017 · 82 MW · 19 30 Aug 2017 · 432 MW · 13 31 Aug 2017 · 7 MW · 2 1 Sept 2017 · 1,967 MW · 99 2 Sept 2017 · 2,072 MW · 293 3 Sept 2017 · 1,243 MW · 125 4 Sept 2017 · 453 MW · 40 5 Sept 2017 · 132 MW · 36 6 Sept 2017 · 1,200 MW · 173 7 Sept 2017 · 3,729 MW · 372 8 Sept 2017 · 3,440 MW · 459 9 Sept 2017 · 971 MW · 141 10 Sept 2017 · 110 MW · 33 11 Sept 2017 · 17 MW · 7 13 Sept 2017 · 1,769 MW · 194 14 Sept 2017 · 1,465 MW · 172 15 Sept 2017 · 731 MW · 153 16 Sept 2017 · 24 MW · 21 17 Sept 2017 · 54 MW · 14 18 Sept 2017 · 266 MW · 36 19 Sept 2017 · 165 MW · 47 20 Sept 2017 · 315 MW · 58 21 Sept 2017 · 64 MW · 23 22 Sept 2017 · 55 MW · 8 23 Sept 2017 · 77 MW · 30 24 Sept 2017 · 73 MW · 21 28 Sept 2017 · 41 MW · 6 30 Sept 2017 · 86 MW · 12 1 Oct 2017 · 105 MW · 23
22 Aug 28 Aug 2 Sept 7 Sept 13 Sept 18 Sept 23 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

37°high
74km/h · peak gust
32%lowest humidity

It had gone 0 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 20.0 mm on 2 Oct.

This area had burned before

58% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 25,012 ha in 2016. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 14,616 ha that had burned before.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 16% of the area of London (251 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 Miguel 15,329 inhabitants where it started
    24,477 ha reached on 22 Aug
    2.5 %
  2. San Ignacio 56,702 inhabitants
    750 ha reached on 22 Aug
    0.0 %

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 2015
Built-up area3.1 ha
Residents≈ 450

Inside the perimeter there were about 3.1 hectares of built-up land and about 450 residents (GHSL 2015, 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)
19 Aug 29.9 °C 57 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 4
20 Aug 25.8 °C 54 % 59 km/h 1.0 mm Low 6
21 Aug 25.5 °C 39 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Low 10
22 Aug 30.3 °C 37 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Low 10
23 Aug 32.2 °C 46 % 58 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 14
24 Aug 33.1 °C 47 % 45 km/h 0.2 mm Moderate 12
25 Aug 33.9 °C 43 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
26 Aug 33.1 °C 44 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 15
27 Aug 34.3 °C 39 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
28 Aug 34.2 °C 40 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
29 Aug 35.5 °C 35 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
30 Aug 32.8 °C 40 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
31 Aug 29.9 °C 41 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
1 Sept 34.3 °C 42 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
2 Sept 34.2 °C 41 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 21
3 Sept 35.0 °C 40 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
4 Sept 36.6 °C 34 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
5 Sept 26.3 °C 46 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
6 Sept 33.0 °C 37 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
7 Sept 34.0 °C 32 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
8 Sept 34.6 °C 34 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
9 Sept 34.4 °C 42 % 55 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
10 Sept 34.5 °C 46 % 55 km/h 0.3 mm High 28
11 Sept 25.8 °C 71 % 31 km/h 11.4 mm Very low 0
12 Sept 31.2 °C 49 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very low 5
13 Sept 34.4 °C 44 % 33 km/h 0.2 mm Moderate 14
14 Sept 34.4 °C 45 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 17
15 Sept 30.6 °C 54 % 46 km/h 8.1 mm Very low 4
16 Sept 23.8 °C 50 % 57 km/h 0.0 mm Low 9
17 Sept 27.4 °C 43 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 14
18 Sept 33.5 °C 37 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 15
19 Sept 35.2 °C 37 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
20 Sept 35.8 °C 32 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
21 Sept 34.2 °C 42 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
22 Sept 30.2 °C 49 % 26 km/h 0.9 mm Moderate 12
23 Sept 30.7 °C 45 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
24 Sept 33.5 °C 43 % 28 km/h 0.2 mm Moderate 18
25 Sept 34.2 °C 43 % 22 km/h 1.0 mm Moderate 14
26 Sept 30.4 °C 51 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 15
27 Sept 33.2 °C 46 % 34 km/h 8.2 mm Very low 3
28 Sept 24.2 °C 77 % 28 km/h 9.5 mm Very low 0
29 Sept 28.4 °C 65 % 26 km/h 3.9 mm Very low 0
30 Sept 33.6 °C 48 % 46 km/h 0.2 mm Very low 5
1 Oct 34.0 °C 47 % 74 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 14
2 Oct after 27.7 °C 67 % 58 km/h 20.0 mm Very low 0

Before and after, from space

Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.

Before · 12 Aug 2017
After · 8 Oct 2017

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 · 2,677Every 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 Miguel fire last?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 19 August 2017 to 1 October 2017 (44 days). The perimeter dates it from 25 August 2017 to 25 September 2017.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 25,140 hectares (251.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: San Miguel (24,477 ha, 2.5 %); San Ignacio (750 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.6 °C, humidity dropped to 32 % and gusts hit 74 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 28, 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.

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.

No changes since 24 October 2026.

RSS Changes to this page

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; 2 polygons grouped in this page.
  • Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 25 August 2017 to 25 September 2017. 2,677 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 2015, 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.