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BO · Bolivia · –

Exaltación fire, 23 July 2024 Exaltación

Out · last detection 15 Aug 2024, 17:46 UTC

The fire started on 23 July 2024 in Exaltación, Bolivia, and satellites saw it burning for 24 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 6,021 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 328th largest in Beni since 2016 (of 859 with a page). Number 139 in Bolivia in 2024, of 295.

Burnt area
6,021ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
24days
23 Jul 2024 – 15 Aug 2024
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
23 Jul
2024
Heat detections
485
in a single hotspot: 195 MW
Danger at start
38
High · FWI index
Average daily power
387MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 23 Jul15 Aug
15 Aug 2024

How it evolved, day by day

23 Jul 2024 · 9 MW · 2 24 Jul 2024 · 21 MW · 2 26 Jul 2024 · 13 MW · 1 29 Jul 2024 · 40 MW · 5 30 Jul 2024 · 548 MW · 29 31 Jul 2024 · 477 MW · 40 1 Aug 2024 · 2,183 MW · 80 2 Aug 2024 · 618 MW · 72 3 Aug 2024 · 1,177 MW · 73 4 Aug 2024 · 1,099 MW · 71 5 Aug 2024 · 246 MW · 21 8 Aug 2024 · 14 MW · 5 10 Aug 2024 · 2 MW · 1 11 Aug 2024 · 5 MW · 1 12 Aug 2024 · 277 MW · 23 13 Aug 2024 · 170 MW · 37 14 Aug 2024 · 32 MW · 16 15 Aug 2024 · 26 MW · 6
23 Jul 1 Aug 10 Aug 14 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

38°high
47km/h · peak gust
12%lowest humidity

It had gone 23 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.0 mm on 24 Aug.

This area had burned before

91% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,724 ha in 2016, 34 ha in 2017, 73 ha in 2019, 5,240 ha in 2020, 2,254 ha in 2021, 2,582 ha in 2022, 2,797 ha in 2023. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 5,491 ha that had burned before.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 3.8% of the area of London (60 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
    6,060 ha reached on 23 Jul
    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)
23 Jul 35.3 °C 28 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
24 Jul 36.6 °C 23 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
25 Jul 36.3 °C 27 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
26 Jul 37.1 °C 31 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
27 Jul 38.1 °C 28 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
28 Jul 36.6 °C 32 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
29 Jul 36.8 °C 30 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
30 Jul 30.0 °C 39 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
31 Jul 34.5 °C 33 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
1 Aug 36.7 °C 28 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
2 Aug 36.4 °C 36 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
3 Aug 36.6 °C 33 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
4 Aug 37.5 °C 33 % 35 km/h 1.5 mm Very high 41
5 Aug 36.6 °C 37 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
6 Aug 35.5 °C 41 % 37 km/h 0.3 mm High 28
7 Aug 33.4 °C 47 % 43 km/h 2.7 mm High 33
8 Aug 34.2 °C 50 % 36 km/h 2.9 mm Low 8
9 Aug 24.2 °C 60 % 43 km/h 5.3 mm Very low 4
10 Aug 25.4 °C 31 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 15
11 Aug 30.5 °C 27 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
12 Aug 31.7 °C 20 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
13 Aug 32.4 °C 12 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
14 Aug 35.4 °C 20 % 18 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
15 Aug 38.1 °C 23 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
16 Aug after 38.7 °C 23 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
17 Aug after 38.6 °C 31 % 30 km/h 0.1 mm Very high 40
18 Aug after 38.8 °C 30 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
19 Aug after 38.4 °C 31 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
20 Aug after 39.0 °C 28 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
21 Aug after 37.2 °C 37 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
22 Aug after 38.8 °C 30 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
23 Aug after 38.8 °C 31 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
24 Aug after 33.4 °C 44 % 43 km/h 1.0 mm High 32

Its twins: fires that started in the same weather

It started with an FWI of 37.8, a minimum humidity of 28% and 23 days without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2022: 2.

FWI at the start 37.8
Minimum humidity 28 %
Days without rain 23
this fire chosen twins rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar

Outlines of the closest twins

Riberalta fire, September 2024
4,216 ha 13 days FWI 34.2 Min. humidity 34 % 99 km away, in 2024

First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 2.9 mm on 9 Oct.

What happened to them

Fires in the area that started in similar weather: 2. With fewer than 15 we give no figures: they would be more noise than signal.

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

1.0 mmfirst rain
24 Aug9 days after it ended
47km/h · max. gust

It was considered over on 15 Aug, and on 24 Aug 1.0 mm fell. We do not know whether the rain or the firefighters put it out.

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 2022.
  • 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 · 16 Jul 2024
After · 22 Aug 2024

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 1 August 2024 the air beside the fire reached 98 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 58: 3.9 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak98 µg/m³
Days over the guideline15 days
PM10140 µg/m³
Optical depth1.33
27 Jul31 Jul4 Aug8 Aug
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 · 485Every 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 23 July 2024 to 15 August 2024 (24 days). The perimeter dates it from 29 July 2024 to 8 August 2024.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 6,021 hectares (60.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Exaltación (6,060 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 38.1 °C, humidity dropped to 12 % and gusts hit 47 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 51, class Extreme.
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: 29 July 2024 → 23 July 2024.

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 29 July 2024 to 8 August 2024. 485 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.