How long did the Huacaraje fire last?

According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 1 August 2024 to 17 September 2024 (48 days). The perimeter dates it from 1 August 2024 to 10 September 2024.

How much area did it burn?

The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 23,952 hectares (239.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire entered 2 municipalities: Huacaraje (20,399 ha, 3.7 %); Magdalena (3,678 ha, 0.3 %).

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 37.6 °C, humidity dropped to 24 % and gusts hit 54 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 42, 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.

BO · Bolivia · 2024-08-01 → 2024-09-17

Huacaraje fire, 1 August 2024 Huacaraje, Magdalena

Out · last detection 18 Sept 2024, 17:08 UTC

The fire started on 1 August 2024 in Huacaraje, Bolivia, and satellites saw it burning for 48 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 23,952 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

This page is probably a fire complex, not a single fire. GWIS merges into one perimeter the fires that touch over weeks, which in large burning seasons can join dozens of separate fires. The total area is reliable; the origin and dates refer to the whole complex.

Other fire pages in the same area and on the same dates:

It is the 37th largest in Beni since 2016 (of 902 with a page). Number 29 in Bolivia in 2024, of 295.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Huacaraje · 2023 Huacaraje · 2022 Huacaraje · 2016 Huacaraje · 2021

Burnt area: 23,952ha; GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration: 48days; 1 Aug 2024 – 17 Sept 2024
Municipalities hit: 2; municipalities
Started on: 1 Aug; 2024
Heat detections: 2,094; in a single hotspot: 161 MW
Danger at start: 32; High · FWI index
Average daily power: 445MW; detected power per day, on average

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 1 Aug17 Sept

Play back 18 Sept 2024

How it evolved, day by day

1 Aug 7 Aug 8 Aug 16 Aug 24 Aug 31 Aug 8 Sept 17 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

54km/h · peak gust

24%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 2.4 mm on 27 Sept.

This area had burned before

84% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,315 ha in 2016, 3,576 ha in 2017, 496 ha in 2018, 381 ha in 2020, 12,622 ha in 2021, 4,464 ha in 2022, 14,424 ha in 2023. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 20,078 ha that had burned before.

How big is it?

It burned the equivalent of 15% of the area of London (240 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

Huacaraje 4,630 inhabitants where it started

20,399 ha reached on 1 Aug

3.7 %
Magdalena 12,785 inhabitants

3,678 ha reached on 4 Aug

0.3 %

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 area0.42 ha

Residents≈ 30

Inside the perimeter there were about 0.42 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)
1 Aug	35.2 °C	37 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	High 32
2 Aug	35.5 °C	35 %	46 km/h	0.0 mm	High 38
3 Aug	35.0 °C	41 %	44 km/h	0.0 mm	High 36
4 Aug	36.3 °C	35 %	38 km/h	0.1 mm	High 32
5 Aug	35.8 °C	36 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	High 30
6 Aug	34.0 °C	46 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	High 27
7 Aug	33.0 °C	49 %	40 km/h	1.3 mm	Moderate 19
8 Aug	30.5 °C	57 %	35 km/h	16.7 mm	Very low 5
9 Aug	21.2 °C	55 %	46 km/h	6.5 mm	Very low 3
10 Aug	25.0 °C	37 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	Low 10
11 Aug	29.4 °C	35 %	19 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 15
12 Aug	30.1 °C	24 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	High 28
13 Aug	30.0 °C	27 %	29 km/h	0.0 mm	High 24
14 Aug	33.6 °C	31 %	17 km/h	0.0 mm	High 22
15 Aug	35.4 °C	32 %	29 km/h	0.0 mm	High 25
16 Aug	36.2 °C	35 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	High 24
17 Aug	36.5 °C	37 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	High 26
18 Aug	36.9 °C	36 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	High 25
19 Aug	36.0 °C	39 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	High 26
20 Aug	36.0 °C	41 %	23 km/h	0.0 mm	High 24
21 Aug	36.2 °C	38 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	High 29
22 Aug	35.8 °C	41 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	High 30
23 Aug	34.6 °C	41 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	High 27
24 Aug	32.3 °C	44 %	41 km/h	0.1 mm	High 32
25 Aug	24.5 °C	39 %	54 km/h	0.0 mm	High 35
26 Aug	26.2 °C	30 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	High 29
27 Aug	30.3 °C	32 %	19 km/h	0.0 mm	High 24
28 Aug	33.2 °C	32 %	21 km/h	0.0 mm	High 26
29 Aug	37.1 °C	27 %	23 km/h	0.0 mm	High 30
30 Aug	35.4 °C	36 %	22 km/h	0.0 mm	High 30
31 Aug	36.2 °C	32 %	23 km/h	0.0 mm	High 30
1 Sept	32.9 °C	34 %	39 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 39
2 Sept	33.3 °C	34 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	High 35
3 Sept	36.2 °C	33 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	High 35
4 Sept	35.7 °C	40 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	High 32
5 Sept	30.3 °C	38 %	46 km/h	0.3 mm	Very high 42
6 Sept	31.9 °C	34 %	24 km/h	0.0 mm	High 29
7 Sept	35.1 °C	34 %	21 km/h	0.0 mm	High 28
8 Sept	36.4 °C	30 %	23 km/h	0.0 mm	High 30
9 Sept	37.6 °C	33 %	17 km/h	0.0 mm	High 30
10 Sept	37.4 °C	34 %	22 km/h	0.0 mm	High 30
11 Sept	36.9 °C	38 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 39
12 Sept	37.3 °C	43 %	34 km/h	0.1 mm	High 33
13 Sept	37.5 °C	37 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	High 33
14 Sept	36.8 °C	37 %	36 km/h	2.3 mm	High 22
15 Sept	28.7 °C	48 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	High 25
16 Sept	31.4 °C	41 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	High 27
17 Sept	34.2 °C	40 %	23 km/h	0.0 mm	High 26
18 Sept after	36.2 °C	38 %	29 km/h	0.0 mm	High 27
19 Sept after	37.0 °C	36 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	High 32
20 Sept after	38.1 °C	35 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	High 32
21 Sept after	37.4 °C	36 %	25 km/h	0.0 mm	High 30
22 Sept after	38.5 °C	32 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	High 34
23 Sept after	37.8 °C	35 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	High 37
24 Sept after	37.6 °C	37 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	High 34
25 Sept after	38.4 °C	36 %	36 km/h	0.1 mm	High 37
26 Sept after	36.8 °C	39 %	32 km/h	0.1 mm	High 37
27 Sept after	31.1 °C	43 %	42 km/h	2.4 mm	Moderate 18

Before and after, from space

Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.

↔

Before · 25 Jul 2024

After · 24 Sept 2024

Before After

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 28 August 2024 the air beside the fire reached 322 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 245: 16 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak322 µg/m³

Days over the guideline45 days

PM10461 µg/m³

Optical depth6.42

WHO 15

30311234567891011121314151617181920212223242526272829303112345678910111213

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 · 2,094Every 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 time	Satellite	FRP (MW)	Lat	Lon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Bolivia ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Huacaraje fire last?: According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 1 August 2024 to 17 September 2024 (48 days). The perimeter dates it from 1 August 2024 to 10 September 2024.
How much area did it burn?: The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 23,952 hectares (239.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire entered 2 municipalities: Huacaraje (20,399 ha, 3.7 %); Magdalena (3,678 ha, 0.3 %).
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 37.6 °C, humidity dropped to 24 % and gusts hit 54 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 42, 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.

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 ›

Viceministerio de Defensa Civil ↗

Satellite cross-check

NASA FIRMS ↗
GWIS · Copernicus ↗

History of this page Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.

No changes since 24 October 2026.

RSS Changes to this page

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?

Dates or duration Place or towns Burned area Name It was not a wildfire Same fire as another page Something else

What really happened?

Your connection to the fire (optional) Email (optional)

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; 2 polygons grouped in this page.
Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 1 August 2024 to 10 September 2024. 2,094 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.

Where it burned