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BO · Bolivia · –

San Ramón fire, 2 August 2017 San Ramón

Out · last detection 12 Aug 2017, 17:46 UTC

The fire started on 2 August 2017 in San Ramón, Bolivia, and satellites saw it burning for 10 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 15,776 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 78th largest in Beni since 2016 (of 859 with a page). Number 10 in Bolivia in 2017, of 123.

Burnt area
15,776ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
10days
2 Aug 2017 – 11 Aug 2017
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
2 Aug
2017
Heat detections
471
in a single hotspot: 0 MW
Danger at start
34
High · FWI index
Average daily power
774MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 2 Aug11 Aug
12 Aug 2017

How it evolved, day by day

2 Aug 2017 · 184 MW · 14 3 Aug 2017 · 1,037 MW · 74 4 Aug 2017 · 186 MW · 37 5 Aug 2017 · 2,215 MW · 47 6 Aug 2017 · 2,303 MW · 148 7 Aug 2017 · 1,120 MW · 61 8 Aug 2017 · 1,195 MW · 56 9 Aug 2017 · 104 MW · 21 10 Aug 2017 · 154 MW · 8 11 Aug 2017 · 18 MW · 4 12 Aug 2017 · 3 MW · 1
2 Aug 6 Aug 11 Aug

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
51km/h · peak gust
37%lowest humidity

It had gone 53 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.1 mm on 12 Aug.

This area had burned before

12% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,913 ha in 2016.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 10% of the area of London (158 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 Ramón 5,489 inhabitants where it started
    15,884 ha
    2.0 %

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 area0.15 ha
Residents< 20

Inside the perimeter there were about 0.15 hectares of built-up land and almost nobody lived there (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)
2 Aug 34.5 °C 37 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
3 Aug 28.1 °C 40 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
4 Aug 31.7 °C 43 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
5 Aug 33.4 °C 41 % 18 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
6 Aug 34.6 °C 39 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
7 Aug 35.7 °C 37 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
8 Aug 36.2 °C 38 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
9 Aug 36.2 °C 38 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
10 Aug 35.5 °C 44 % 43 km/h 1.4 mm High 24
11 Aug 35.4 °C 46 % 51 km/h 1.5 mm High 24
12 Aug after 34.8 °C 47 % 56 km/h 1.1 mm High 26

Its twins: fires that started in the same weather

It started with an FWI of 34.5, a minimum humidity of 37% and 53 days without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 29.

FWI at the start 34.5
Minimum humidity 37 %
Days without rain 53
this fire chosen twins rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar

Outlines of the closest twins

Huacaraje fire, August 2024
23,654 ha 48 days FWI 31.7 Min. humidity 37 % 58 km away, in 2024

First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 2.4 mm on 27 Sept.

What happened to them

10 days
median duration
5,684 ha
median area
24 %
went past 10,000 ha
4.9 mm
rain at the end (median; 26 of 29 had it)

It was 2.8 times larger than the median of its twins and lasted 10 days, against 10 days.

Only 4 of its 29 twins burned more. The weather on the first day does not explain everything: the wind in the following days, the fuel and the firefighting also count. In 3 of 29, 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 4.9 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

1.1 mmfirst rain
12 Augthe day after it ended
51km/h · max. gust

It was considered over on 11 Aug, and on 12 Aug 1.1 mm fell. We do not know whether the rain or the firefighters put it out. Twins with rain when they ended: 26 of 29, with a median of 4.9 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 · 26 Jul 2017
After · 18 Aug 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 · 0Every 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 Ramón fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 2 August 2017 and 11 August 2017: 10 days between the first and last heat detection of the perimeter.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 15,776 hectares (157.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered San Ramón (15,884 ha, 2.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.2 °C, humidity dropped to 37 % and gusts hit 51 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 38, 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.
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: 29. Their median duration was 10 days and their median area 5,684 ha; 24 % went past 10,000 ha. Only 4 of its 29 twins burned more. The weather on the first day does not explain everything: the wind in the following days, the fuel and the firefighting also count. In 3 of 29, 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 4.9 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 · 2 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
  1. Last day with fire: 13 August 2017 → 11 August 2017.
  2. Start date: 27 July 2017 → 2 August 2017.

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 from the perimeter: the VIIRS detections inside it did not change them. No 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.