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BO · Bolivia · –

Exaltación fire, 20 August 2024 Exaltación

Out · last detection 15 Sept 2024, 18:05 UTC

The fire started on 20 August 2024 in Exaltación, Bolivia, and satellites saw it burning for 26 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 32,819 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 19th largest in Beni since 2016 (of 859 with a page). Number 18 in Bolivia in 2024, of 295.

Burnt area
32,819ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
26days
20 Aug 2024 – 14 Sept 2024
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
20 Aug
2024
Heat detections
1,089
in a single hotspot: 148 MW
Danger at start
25
High · FWI index
Average daily power
410MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 20 Aug14 Sept
15 Sept 2024

How it evolved, day by day

20 Aug 2024 · 148 MW · 19 22 Aug 2024 · 175 MW · 22 23 Aug 2024 · 585 MW · 73 24 Aug 2024 · 1,480 MW · 118 25 Aug 2024 · 1,499 MW · 254 26 Aug 2024 · 1,546 MW · 179 27 Aug 2024 · 388 MW · 56 28 Aug 2024 · 661 MW · 52 29 Aug 2024 · 246 MW · 31 30 Aug 2024 · 93 MW · 30 31 Aug 2024 · 335 MW · 16 1 Sept 2024 · 281 MW · 33 2 Sept 2024 · 177 MW · 25 3 Sept 2024 · 40 MW · 10 4 Sept 2024 · 133 MW · 26 5 Sept 2024 · 583 MW · 54 6 Sept 2024 · 67 MW · 11 8 Sept 2024 · 2 MW · 1 9 Sept 2024 · 520 MW · 9 11 Sept 2024 · 59 MW · 12 13 Sept 2024 · 174 MW · 20 14 Sept 2024 · 217 MW · 35 15 Sept 2024 · 26 MW · 3
20 Aug 26 Aug 31 Aug 5 Sept 13 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

39°high
50km/h · peak gust
29%lowest humidity

It had gone 10 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

77% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 5,760 ha in 2016, 1,651 ha in 2017, 5,436 ha in 2018, 3,490 ha in 2019, 8,992 ha in 2020, 7,183 ha in 2021, 8,075 ha in 2022, 3,774 ha in 2023. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 25,372 ha that had burned before.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 21% of the area of London (328 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
    33,069 ha reached on 20 Aug
    1.3 %

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 area0.47 ha
Residents≈ 30

Inside the perimeter there were about 0.47 hectares of built-up land and about 30 residents (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)
20 Aug 37.8 °C 35 % 22 km/h 0.1 mm High 25
21 Aug 36.0 °C 42 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
22 Aug 36.9 °C 38 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
23 Aug 36.7 °C 39 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
24 Aug 33.0 °C 50 % 41 km/h 0.5 mm High 22
25 Aug 24.4 °C 40 % 50 km/h 0.6 mm Very high 41
26 Aug 25.4 °C 29 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
27 Aug 30.3 °C 32 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
28 Aug 33.2 °C 35 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
29 Aug 36.9 °C 32 % 18 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
30 Aug 36.3 °C 35 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
31 Aug 37.1 °C 34 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
1 Sept 33.8 °C 36 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
2 Sept 33.6 °C 35 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
3 Sept 36.5 °C 34 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
4 Sept 37.3 °C 37 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
5 Sept 31.2 °C 42 % 36 km/h 3.8 mm Moderate 14
6 Sept 31.6 °C 35 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
7 Sept 34.5 °C 36 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
8 Sept 36.4 °C 39 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
9 Sept 37.4 °C 37 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
10 Sept 37.7 °C 35 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
11 Sept 37.3 °C 41 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
12 Sept 37.9 °C 40 % 35 km/h 0.1 mm High 36
13 Sept 38.7 °C 34 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
14 Sept 39.1 °C 33 % 30 km/h 2.2 mm High 34
15 Sept after 28.8 °C 48 % 34 km/h 0.9 mm Low 10
16 Sept after 31.7 °C 39 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
17 Sept after 34.0 °C 38 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
18 Sept after 36.4 °C 38 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
19 Sept after 37.7 °C 39 % 33 km/h 0.3 mm High 31
20 Sept after 38.1 °C 35 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
21 Sept after 38.7 °C 32 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
22 Sept after 39.2 °C 33 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
23 Sept after 38.8 °C 37 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
24 Sept after 38.7 °C 39 % 31 km/h 0.3 mm High 33

Its twins: fires that started in the same weather

It started with an FWI of 25.2, a minimum humidity of 35% and 10 days without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 21.

FWI at the start 25.2
Minimum humidity 35 %
Days without rain 10
this fire chosen twins rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar

Outlines of the closest twins

San Ramón fire, July 2016
57,563 ha 17 days FWI 25.4 Min. humidity 35 % 165 km away, in 2016

First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 4.5 mm on 9 Aug.

What happened to them

7 days
median duration
3,889 ha
median area
19 %
went past 10,000 ha
3.8 mm
rain at the end (median; 17 of 21 had it)

It was 8.4 times larger than the median of its twins and lasted 26 days, against 7 days.

Only 1 of its 21 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 4 of 21, 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 3.8 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

—first rain
—no rain in ten days
50km/h · max. gust

It was considered over on 14 Sept, and not even 1 mm fell in the following ten days: it went out without rain. Twins with rain when they ended: 17 of 21, with a median of 3.8 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 · 13 Aug 2024
After · 21 Sept 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 27 August 2024 the air beside the fire reached 243 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 167: 11 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak243 µg/m³
Days over the guideline24 days
PM10347 µg/m³
Optical depth7.05
18 Aug23 Aug28 Aug2 Sept7 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 · 1,089Every 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 20 August 2024 to 14 September 2024 (26 days). The perimeter dates it from 20 August 2024 to 7 September 2024.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 32,819 hectares (328.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Exaltación (33,069 ha, 1.3 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 39.1 °C, humidity dropped to 29 % and gusts hit 50 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 41, 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: 21. Their median duration was 7 days and their median area 3,889 ha; 19 % went past 10,000 ha. Only 1 of its 21 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 4 of 21, 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 3.8 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: 7 September 2024 → 14 September 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; 4 polygons grouped in this page.
  • Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 20 August 2024 to 7 September 2024. 1,089 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.