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San Miguel fire, July 2019 San Antonio de Lomerío, San Miguel, Concepción

Out · last detection 4 Oct 2019, 05:32 UTC

The fire started on 24 July 2019 in San Miguel, Bolivia, and satellites saw it burning for 73 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 118,102 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.

This page is probably a fire complex, not a single fire. GWIS merges into one perimeter the fires that touch over weeks, which in large burning seasons can join dozens of separate fires. The total area is reliable; the origin and dates refer to the whole complex.

Other fire pages in the same area and on the same dates:

It is the 13th largest in Santa Cruz since 2016 (of 836 with a page). Number 6 in Bolivia in 2019, of 219.

Compare with…

Suggestions: San Miguel · 2017San Miguel · 2018Concepción · 2016San Antonio de Lomerío · 2018

Burnt area
118,102ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
73days
24 Jul 2019 – 4 Oct 2019
Municipalities hit
3
municipalities
Started on
24 Jul
2019
Heat detections
13,994
in a single hotspot: 138 MW
Danger at start
21
Moderate · FWI index
Average daily power
939MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 24 Jul4 Oct
4 Oct 2019

How it evolved, day by day

24 Jul 2019 · 77 MW · 15 26 Jul 2019 · 4 MW · 2 27 Jul 2019 · 45 MW · 5 28 Jul 2019 · 3 MW · 2 31 Jul 2019 · 8 MW · 1 1 Aug 2019 · 132 MW · 20 2 Aug 2019 · 17 MW · 6 3 Aug 2019 · 35 MW · 10 4 Aug 2019 · 495 MW · 56 5 Aug 2019 · 722 MW · 57 6 Aug 2019 · 388 MW · 60 7 Aug 2019 · 280 MW · 64 8 Aug 2019 · 13 MW · 7 9 Aug 2019 · 14 MW · 2 10 Aug 2019 · 58 MW · 13 11 Aug 2019 · 153 MW · 25 12 Aug 2019 · 443 MW · 67 13 Aug 2019 · 965 MW · 82 14 Aug 2019 · 689 MW · 134 15 Aug 2019 · 1,165 MW · 109 16 Aug 2019 · 659 MW · 84 17 Aug 2019 · 1,647 MW · 276 18 Aug 2019 · 1,263 MW · 210 19 Aug 2019 · 290 MW · 46 20 Aug 2019 · 224 MW · 61 21 Aug 2019 · 893 MW · 89 22 Aug 2019 · 664 MW · 93 23 Aug 2019 · 507 MW · 164 24 Aug 2019 · 748 MW · 109 25 Aug 2019 · 357 MW · 46 26 Aug 2019 · 123 MW · 11 27 Aug 2019 · 34 MW · 28 28 Aug 2019 · 307 MW · 35 29 Aug 2019 · 622 MW · 118 30 Aug 2019 · 391 MW · 68 31 Aug 2019 · 96 MW · 17 1 Sept 2019 · 45 MW · 19 2 Sept 2019 · 175 MW · 52 3 Sept 2019 · 306 MW · 118 4 Sept 2019 · 564 MW · 116 5 Sept 2019 · 496 MW · 72 6 Sept 2019 · 446 MW · 133 7 Sept 2019 · 2,420 MW · 476 8 Sept 2019 · 2,194 MW · 587 9 Sept 2019 · 7,013 MW · 859 10 Sept 2019 · 611 MW · 234 11 Sept 2019 · 7 MW · 1 12 Sept 2019 · 26 MW · 20 13 Sept 2019 · 241 MW · 94 14 Sept 2019 · 1,666 MW · 303 15 Sept 2019 · 3,087 MW · 384 16 Sept 2019 · 1,239 MW · 210 17 Sept 2019 · 926 MW · 309 18 Sept 2019 · 1,361 MW · 447 19 Sept 2019 · 1,965 MW · 566 20 Sept 2019 · 550 MW · 171 21 Sept 2019 · 566 MW · 126 22 Sept 2019 · 1,815 MW · 544 23 Sept 2019 · 6,791 MW · 1459 24 Sept 2019 · 7,025 MW · 2007 25 Sept 2019 · 62 MW · 14 26 Sept 2019 · 439 MW · 54 27 Sept 2019 · 607 MW · 120 28 Sept 2019 · 1,675 MW · 557 29 Sept 2019 · 3,005 MW · 938 30 Sept 2019 · 2,649 MW · 727 1 Oct 2019 · 252 MW · 56 3 Oct 2019 · 20 MW · 5 4 Oct 2019 · 23 MW · 24
24 Jul 6 Aug 16 Aug 26 Aug 5 Sept 15 Sept 24 Sept 25 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
22%lowest humidity

It had gone 19 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 12.1 mm on 5 Oct.

This area had burned before

16% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 13,753 ha in 2016, 5,443 ha in 2017, 7,209 ha in 2018. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 19,138 ha that had burned before.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 75% of the area of London (1,181 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 Antonio de Lomerío 6,364 inhabitants
    64,994 ha reached on 4 Aug
    27 %
  2. San Miguel 15,329 inhabitants where it started
    32,801 ha reached on 24 Jul
    3.4 %
  3. Concepción 93,392 inhabitants
    21,044 ha reached on 14 Aug
    0.7 %

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 area1.7 ha
Residents≈ 400

Inside the perimeter there were about 1.7 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)
24 Jul 20.3 °C 44 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
25 Jul 17.1 °C 57 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
26 Jul 22.4 °C 48 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 14
27 Jul 23.6 °C 47 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 15
28 Jul 30.3 °C 37 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
29 Jul 31.1 °C 38 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
30 Jul 32.0 °C 38 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
31 Jul 33.0 °C 34 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
1 Aug 32.6 °C 32 % 57 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
2 Aug 22.6 °C 27 % 74 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
3 Aug 22.0 °C 22 % 54 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
4 Aug 23.0 °C 22 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
5 Aug 27.1 °C 26 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
6 Aug 31.3 °C 30 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
7 Aug 33.0 °C 34 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
8 Aug 32.4 °C 44 % 51 km/h 0.2 mm High 28
9 Aug 31.5 °C 39 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
10 Aug 26.3 °C 40 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
11 Aug 33.2 °C 32 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
12 Aug 33.9 °C 32 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
13 Aug 26.0 °C 32 % 64 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
14 Aug 24.2 °C 24 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
15 Aug 31.6 °C 30 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
16 Aug 33.4 °C 29 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
17 Aug 33.1 °C 34 % 64 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
18 Aug 32.6 °C 42 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
19 Aug 28.3 °C 39 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
20 Aug 30.2 °C 38 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
21 Aug 31.9 °C 37 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
22 Aug 33.8 °C 39 % 24 km/h 0.2 mm High 27
23 Aug 30.1 °C 41 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
24 Aug 34.1 °C 35 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
25 Aug 34.8 °C 37 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
26 Aug 33.0 °C 42 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
27 Aug 30.9 °C 51 % 28 km/h 5.0 mm Low 5
28 Aug 33.3 °C 40 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 17
29 Aug 34.5 °C 37 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
30 Aug 34.8 °C 39 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
31 Aug 33.2 °C 42 % 44 km/h 3.6 mm Low 8
1 Sept 26.5 °C 43 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 17
2 Sept 32.6 °C 41 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
3 Sept 31.6 °C 43 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
4 Sept 32.8 °C 36 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
5 Sept 32.1 °C 38 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
6 Sept 35.2 °C 35 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
7 Sept 36.0 °C 32 % 53 km/h 0.5 mm High 36
8 Sept 36.2 °C 31 % 54 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
9 Sept 35.6 °C 30 % 58 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
10 Sept 35.6 °C 34 % 54 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
11 Sept 35.7 °C 40 % 45 km/h 0.1 mm High 34
12 Sept 25.6 °C 49 % 51 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
13 Sept 31.4 °C 42 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
14 Sept 35.6 °C 33 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
15 Sept 36.3 °C 32 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
16 Sept 37.1 °C 32 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
17 Sept 33.8 °C 38 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
18 Sept 34.6 °C 37 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
19 Sept 35.1 °C 43 % 70 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
20 Sept 32.0 °C 49 % 54 km/h 0.7 mm High 23
21 Sept 31.3 °C 37 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
22 Sept 32.7 °C 34 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
23 Sept 35.8 °C 34 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
24 Sept 36.2 °C 37 % 30 km/h 2.1 mm Moderate 18
25 Sept 29.9 °C 42 % 37 km/h 0.4 mm High 25
26 Sept 32.6 °C 33 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
27 Sept 34.7 °C 33 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
28 Sept 36.2 °C 32 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
29 Sept 35.6 °C 37 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
30 Sept 36.1 °C 38 % 54 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
1 Oct 32.6 °C 49 % 68 km/h 1.0 mm High 26
2 Oct 30.7 °C 49 % 61 km/h 0.8 mm High 22
3 Oct 31.9 °C 42 % 26 km/h 0.2 mm High 22
4 Oct 33.5 °C 43 % 31 km/h 2.7 mm Moderate 12
5 Oct after 24.6 °C 77 % 48 km/h 12.1 mm Very low 0

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 17 Jul 2019
After · 11 Oct 2019

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 · 13,994Every 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 24 July 2019 to 4 October 2019 (73 days). The perimeter dates it from 31 July 2019 to 4 October 2019.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 118,102 hectares (1,181.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 3 municipalities: San Antonio de Lomerío (64,994 ha, 27 %); San Miguel (32,801 ha, 3.4 %); Concepción (21,044 ha, 0.7 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 37.1 °C, humidity dropped to 22 % and gusts hit 74 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 44, 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.

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: 31 July 2019 → 24 July 2019.

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; 7 polygons grouped in this page.
  • Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 31 July 2019 to 4 October 2019. 13,994 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.