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BO · Bolivia · –

Exaltación fire, 14 October 2023 Exaltación

Out · last detection 20 Oct 2023, 05:38 UTC

The fire started on 14 October 2023 in Exaltación, Bolivia, and satellites saw it burning for 7 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,462 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 369th largest in Beni since 2016 (of 859 with a page). Number 118 in Bolivia in 2023, of 247.

Burnt area
5,462ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
7days
14 Oct 2023 – 20 Oct 2023
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
14 Oct
2023
Heat detections
193
in a single hotspot: 204 MW
Danger at start
5
Low · FWI index
Average daily power
457MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 14 Oct20 Oct
20 Oct 2023

How it evolved, day by day

14 Oct 2023 · 51 MW · 7 15 Oct 2023 · 1,010 MW · 26 16 Oct 2023 · 371 MW · 27 17 Oct 2023 · 308 MW · 21 18 Oct 2023 · 1,341 MW · 86 19 Oct 2023 · 110 MW · 22 20 Oct 2023 · 5 MW · 4
14 Oct 16 Oct 18 Oct 20 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

40°high
40km/h · peak gust
33%lowest humidity

It had gone 0 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 9.1 mm on 27 Oct.

This area had burned before

97% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 3,471 ha in 2016, 2,975 ha in 2017, 1,400 ha in 2019, 1,360 ha in 2020, 734 ha in 2021. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 5,310 ha that had burned before.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 3.4% of the area of London (55 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
    5,508 ha reached on 14 Oct
    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)
14 Oct 34.0 °C 43 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Low 5
15 Oct 38.0 °C 33 % 23 km/h 0.1 mm Moderate 14
16 Oct 36.7 °C 43 % 38 km/h 0.1 mm Moderate 19
17 Oct 37.3 °C 39 % 40 km/h 1.0 mm Moderate 17
18 Oct 39.0 °C 34 % 30 km/h 0.2 mm Moderate 20
19 Oct 39.8 °C 34 % 26 km/h 0.1 mm Moderate 20
20 Oct 38.3 °C 37 % 34 km/h 1.8 mm Moderate 15
21 Oct after 39.4 °C 26 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
22 Oct after 40.8 °C 26 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
23 Oct after 39.7 °C 31 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
24 Oct after 38.5 °C 35 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
25 Oct after 38.4 °C 39 % 37 km/h 0.1 mm High 31
26 Oct after 34.6 °C 49 % 40 km/h 0.6 mm High 23
27 Oct after 34.2 °C 52 % 60 km/h 9.1 mm Low 6

Its twins: fires that started in the same weather

It started with an FWI of 5.2, a minimum humidity of 43% and rain the day before. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 28.

FWI at the start 5.2
Minimum humidity 43 %
Days without rain 0
this fire chosen twins rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar

Outlines of the closest twins

Santa Ana fire, September 2024
13,371 ha 32 days FWI 5.5 Min. humidity 42 % 124 km away, in 2024

First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 1.5 mm on 16 Oct.

What happened to them

11 days
median duration
5,320 ha
median area
21 %
went past 10,000 ha
7.6 mm
rain at the end (median; 28 of 28 had it)

It burned an area similar to its twins (5,462 ha against a median of 5,320 ha) and lasted 7 days, against 11 days.

All of them had rain in the ten days after the end: the first rainy day brought a median of 7.6 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

9.1 mmfirst rain
27 Oct7 days after it ended
40km/h · max. gust

It was considered over on 20 Oct, and on 27 Oct 9.1 mm fell. We do not know whether the rain or the firefighters put it out. Twins with rain when they ended: 28 of 28, with a median of 7.6 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 · 7 Oct 2023
After · 27 Oct 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 21 October 2023 the air beside the fire reached 121 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 62: 4.1 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak121 µg/m³
Days over the guideline10 days
PM10173 µg/m³
Optical depth1.74
13 Oct16 Oct19 Oct22 Oct
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 · 193Every 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 14 October 2023 to 20 October 2023 (7 days). The perimeter dates it from 15 October 2023 to 20 October 2023.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 5,462 hectares (54.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Exaltación (5,508 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 39.8 °C, humidity dropped to 33 % and gusts hit 40 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 20, class Moderate.
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: 28. Their median duration was 11 days and their median area 5,320 ha; 21 % went past 10,000 ha. All of them had rain in the ten days after the end: the first rainy day brought a median of 7.6 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 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.

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 15 October 2023 to 20 October 2023. 193 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.