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BO · Bolivia · –

Exaltación fire, 28 August 2023 Exaltación

Out · last detection 2 Sept 2023, 05:39 UTC

The fire started on 28 August 2023 in Exaltación, Bolivia, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,187 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 546th largest in Beni since 2016 (of 859 with a page). Number 162 in Bolivia in 2023, of 247.

Burnt area
4,187ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
6days
28 Aug 2023 – 2 Sept 2023
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
28 Aug
2023
Heat detections
102
in a single hotspot: 100 MW
Danger at start
22
High · FWI index
Average daily power
185MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 28 Aug2 Sept
2 Sept 2023

How it evolved, day by day

29 Aug 2023 · 46 MW · 16 30 Aug 2023 · 743 MW · 60 31 Aug 2023 · 107 MW · 17 1 Sept 2023 · 27 MW · 8 2 Sept 2023 · 1 MW · 1
29 Aug 30 Aug 31 Aug 1 Sept 2 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

38°high
49km/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: 17.3 mm on 5 Sept.

This area had burned before

71% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,358 ha in 2016, 1,512 ha in 2017, 297 ha in 2018, 805 ha in 2019, 181 ha in 2020, 595 ha in 2022. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,955 ha that had burned before.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 2.6% of the area of London (42 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. Exaltación 8,012 inhabitants where it started
    4,219 ha reached on 29 Aug
    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 area< 0.1 ha
Residents< 20

Inside the perimeter there was no noticeable built-up land and almost nobody lived there (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)
28 Aug 33.4 °C 34 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
29 Aug 37.1 °C 36 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
30 Aug 37.8 °C 37 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
31 Aug 37.9 °C 36 % 41 km/h 0.4 mm High 34
1 Sept 36.9 °C 42 % 43 km/h 2.8 mm Very high 38
2 Sept 38.3 °C 32 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
3 Sept after 36.0 °C 41 % 53 km/h 0.2 mm Very high 38
4 Sept after 36.2 °C 45 % 37 km/h 0.2 mm High 30
5 Sept after 32.9 °C 55 % 30 km/h 17.3 mm Very low 2

Its twins: fires that started in the same weather

It started with an FWI of 22.3, a minimum humidity of 34% and rain the day before. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 30.

FWI at the start 22.3
Minimum humidity 34 %
Days without rain 0
this fire chosen twins rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar

Outlines of the closest twins

Santa Rosa fire, September 2023
5,419 ha 12 days FWI 21.5 Min. humidity 33 % 36 km away, in 2023

First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 2.2 mm on 29 Sept.

What happened to them

6 days
median duration
4,330 ha
median area
13 %
went past 10,000 ha
4.3 mm
rain at the end (median; 27 of 30 had it)

It burned an area similar to its twins (4,187 ha against a median of 4,330 ha) and lasted 6 days, against 6 days.

In 3 of 30, 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 4.3 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

17.3 mmfirst rain
5 Sept3 days after it ended
49km/h · max. gust

It was considered over on 2 Sept, and on 5 Sept 17.3 mm fell. We do not know whether the rain or the firefighters put it out. Twins with rain when they ended: 27 of 30, with a median of 4.3 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 · 21 Aug 2023
After · 9 Sept 2023

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 27 August 2023 the air beside the fire reached 42 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 29: 1.9 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak42 µg/m³
Days over the guideline8 days
PM1061 µg/m³
Optical depth1.09
26 Aug28 Aug30 Aug1 Sept3 Sept
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 · 102Every 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 Exaltación fire last?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 28 August 2023 to 2 September 2023 (6 days). The perimeter dates it from 28 August 2023 to 1 September 2023.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 4,187 hectares (41.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Exaltación (4,219 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 38.3 °C, humidity dropped to 32 % and gusts hit 49 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 38, 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.
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: 30. Their median duration was 6 days and their median area 4,330 ha; 13 % went past 10,000 ha. In 3 of 30, 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 4.3 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 · 1 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
  1. Last day with fire: 1 September 2023 → 2 September 2023.

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 adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 28 August 2023 to 1 September 2023. 102 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.