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San Miguel fire, September 2018 San Miguel, San Ignacio

Out · last detection 17 Oct 2018, 18:04 UTC

The fire started on 12 September 2018 in San Miguel, Bolivia, and satellites saw it burning for 36 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 21,134 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 99th largest in Santa Cruz since 2016 (of 836 with a page). Number 3 in Bolivia in 2018, of 80.

Compare with…

Suggestions: San Miguel · 2017San Miguel · 2016San Ignacio · 2017San Miguel · 2019

Burnt area
21,134ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
36days
12 Sept 2018 – 17 Oct 2018
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
12 Sept
2018
Heat detections
1,754
in a single hotspot: 215 MW
Danger at start
26
High · FWI index
Average daily power
438MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 12 Sept17 Oct
17 Oct 2018

How it evolved, day by day

12 Sept 2018 · 263 MW · 24 13 Sept 2018 · 130 MW · 23 14 Sept 2018 · 70 MW · 15 15 Sept 2018 · 43 MW · 10 16 Sept 2018 · 5 MW · 5 19 Sept 2018 · 6 MW · 1 20 Sept 2018 · 10 MW · 5 21 Sept 2018 · 3,136 MW · 355 22 Sept 2018 · 881 MW · 123 23 Sept 2018 · 1,537 MW · 284 24 Sept 2018 · 539 MW · 82 25 Sept 2018 · 916 MW · 192 26 Sept 2018 · 1,114 MW · 164 27 Sept 2018 · 697 MW · 107 28 Sept 2018 · 50 MW · 6 30 Sept 2018 · 101 MW · 28 1 Oct 2018 · 521 MW · 23 2 Oct 2018 · 287 MW · 66 3 Oct 2018 · 9 MW · 4 4 Oct 2018 · 61 MW · 14 5 Oct 2018 · 343 MW · 36 6 Oct 2018 · 116 MW · 11 7 Oct 2018 · 301 MW · 59 8 Oct 2018 · 153 MW · 19 9 Oct 2018 · 891 MW · 18 10 Oct 2018 · 226 MW · 48 13 Oct 2018 · 1 MW · 1 14 Oct 2018 · 134 MW · 13 17 Oct 2018 · 174 MW · 18
12 Sept 19 Sept 21 Sept 24 Sept 30 Sept 5 Oct 10 Oct

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

The weather it burned in

36°high
64km/h · peak gust
36%lowest humidity

It had gone 10 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 16.2 mm on 19 Oct.

This area had burned before

89% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 19,328 ha in 2016, 26,653 ha in 2017. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 18,769 ha that had burned before.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 13% of the area of London (211 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
    20,456 ha reached on 12 Sept
    2.1 %
  2. San Ignacio 56,702 inhabitants
    753 ha reached on 21 Sept
    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 2020
Built-up area2.9 ha
Residents≈ 400

Inside the perimeter there were about 2.9 hectares of built-up land and about 400 residents (GHSL 2020, 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)
12 Sept 35.4 °C 36 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
13 Sept 34.0 °C 42 % 42 km/h 0.3 mm High 26
14 Sept 28.7 °C 59 % 41 km/h 2.7 mm Very low 5
15 Sept 31.3 °C 54 % 37 km/h 1.0 mm Low 8
16 Sept 28.7 °C 66 % 51 km/h 2.9 mm Very low 5
17 Sept 27.4 °C 71 % 39 km/h 14.7 mm Very low 0
18 Sept 30.3 °C 65 % 55 km/h 5.1 mm Very low 1
19 Sept 33.5 °C 45 % 64 km/h 0.3 mm Low 8
20 Sept 33.6 °C 51 % 46 km/h 2.2 mm Very low 4
21 Sept 35.2 °C 43 % 36 km/h 0.1 mm Low 11
22 Sept 34.2 °C 49 % 38 km/h 1.8 mm Low 6
23 Sept 34.0 °C 47 % 49 km/h 0.2 mm Moderate 12
24 Sept 36.2 °C 40 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 17
25 Sept 35.9 °C 41 % 43 km/h 0.6 mm Moderate 15
26 Sept 35.9 °C 43 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 17
27 Sept 36.0 °C 39 % 37 km/h 1.9 mm Low 11
28 Sept 28.6 °C 65 % 28 km/h 14.3 mm Very low 0
29 Sept 29.2 °C 56 % 48 km/h 2.2 mm Very low 2
30 Sept 31.9 °C 52 % 62 km/h 0.0 mm Low 8
1 Oct 34.5 °C 48 % 51 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 12
2 Oct 33.1 °C 55 % 39 km/h 1.1 mm Low 8
3 Oct 30.3 °C 61 % 29 km/h 4.2 mm Very low 1
4 Oct 28.2 °C 56 % 37 km/h 0.7 mm Very low 4
5 Oct 30.7 °C 48 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Low 10
6 Oct 33.5 °C 46 % 24 km/h 0.2 mm Low 10
7 Oct 34.4 °C 46 % 39 km/h 0.2 mm Moderate 13
8 Oct 32.3 °C 57 % 57 km/h 6.0 mm Very low 2
9 Oct 34.1 °C 49 % 60 km/h 0.0 mm Low 10
10 Oct 33.5 °C 46 % 45 km/h 3.2 mm Very low 4
11 Oct 24.7 °C 89 % 22 km/h 12.8 mm Very low 0
12 Oct 29.6 °C 61 % 42 km/h 0.4 mm Very low 0
13 Oct 33.3 °C 48 % 40 km/h 0.6 mm Very low 3
14 Oct 32.0 °C 53 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Low 6
15 Oct 30.9 °C 53 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Low 8
16 Oct 33.6 °C 49 % 52 km/h 0.1 mm Moderate 12
17 Oct 35.8 °C 44 % 54 km/h 0.5 mm Moderate 14
18 Oct after 35.7 °C 45 % 40 km/h 0.2 mm Moderate 14
19 Oct after 30.6 °C 63 % 39 km/h 16.2 mm Very low 0

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 5 Sept 2018
After · 24 Oct 2018

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 · 1,754Every 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 12 September 2018 to 17 October 2018 (36 days). The perimeter dates it from 19 September 2018 to 10 October 2018.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 21,134 hectares (211.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: San Miguel (20,456 ha, 2.1 %); San Ignacio (753 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.2 °C, humidity dropped to 36 % and gusts hit 64 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 26, 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.
  • Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 19 September 2018 to 10 October 2018. 1,754 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 2020, 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.