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BO · Bolivia · –

Huacaraje fire, 12 August 2024 Huacaraje, Magdalena, San Ramón

Out · last detection 22 Sept 2024, 17:33 UTC

The fire started on 12 August 2024 in Huacaraje, Bolivia, and satellites saw it burning for 41 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 29,024 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.

It is the 27th largest in Beni since 2016 (of 859 with a page). Number 23 in Bolivia in 2024, of 295.

Burnt area
29,024ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
41days
12 Aug 2024 – 21 Sept 2024
Municipalities hit
3
municipalities
Started on
12 Aug
2024
Heat detections
2,419
in a single hotspot: 190 MW
Danger at start
26
High · FWI index
Average daily power
472MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 12 Aug21 Sept
22 Sept 2024

How it evolved, day by day

12 Aug 2024 · 445 MW · 35 13 Aug 2024 · 108 MW · 33 14 Aug 2024 · 141 MW · 31 15 Aug 2024 · 99 MW · 16 16 Aug 2024 · 85 MW · 12 17 Aug 2024 · 12 MW · 3 18 Aug 2024 · 2 MW · 1 19 Aug 2024 · 92 MW · 22 20 Aug 2024 · 173 MW · 28 21 Aug 2024 · 180 MW · 35 22 Aug 2024 · 979 MW · 99 23 Aug 2024 · 345 MW · 39 24 Aug 2024 · 1,846 MW · 209 25 Aug 2024 · 2,773 MW · 322 26 Aug 2024 · 1,992 MW · 312 27 Aug 2024 · 460 MW · 57 28 Aug 2024 · 268 MW · 49 29 Aug 2024 · 1,149 MW · 116 30 Aug 2024 · 613 MW · 155 31 Aug 2024 · 457 MW · 79 1 Sept 2024 · 556 MW · 80 2 Sept 2024 · 373 MW · 56 3 Sept 2024 · 456 MW · 61 4 Sept 2024 · 730 MW · 79 5 Sept 2024 · 64 MW · 27 6 Sept 2024 · 35 MW · 3 7 Sept 2024 · 985 MW · 47 8 Sept 2024 · 201 MW · 27 9 Sept 2024 · 799 MW · 61 10 Sept 2024 · 324 MW · 54 11 Sept 2024 · 52 MW · 17 12 Sept 2024 · 147 MW · 14 13 Sept 2024 · 32 MW · 12 14 Sept 2024 · 67 MW · 24 15 Sept 2024 · 3 MW · 2 17 Sept 2024 · 3 MW · 1 18 Sept 2024 · 19 MW · 4 19 Sept 2024 · 113 MW · 22 20 Sept 2024 · 355 MW · 63 21 Sept 2024 · 930 MW · 64 22 Sept 2024 · 909 MW · 48
12 Aug 25 Aug 8 Sept 18 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
53km/h · peak gust
24%lowest humidity

It had gone 2 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.2 mm on 26 Sept.

This area had burned before

87% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,038 ha in 2016, 4,288 ha in 2017, 3,280 ha in 2018, 3,889 ha in 2019, 3,980 ha in 2020, 9,045 ha in 2021, 5,786 ha in 2022, 17,671 ha in 2023. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 25,340 ha that had burned before.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 18% of the area of London (290 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. Huacaraje 4,630 inhabitants where it started
    15,928 ha reached on 12 Aug
    2.9 %
  2. Magdalena 12,785 inhabitants
    12,459 ha reached on 12 Aug
    0.9 %
  3. San Ramón 5,489 inhabitants
    813 ha reached on 20 Aug
    0.1 %

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 area0.13 ha
Residents< 20

Inside the perimeter there were about 0.13 hectares of 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)
12 Aug 30.0 °C 24 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
13 Aug 29.9 °C 26 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
14 Aug 33.4 °C 31 % 17 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
15 Aug 35.4 °C 32 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
16 Aug 36.1 °C 35 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
17 Aug 36.6 °C 37 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
18 Aug 36.9 °C 36 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
19 Aug 36.2 °C 38 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
20 Aug 36.1 °C 40 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
21 Aug 36.1 °C 39 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
22 Aug 36.0 °C 40 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
23 Aug 34.8 °C 41 % 36 km/h 0.1 mm High 27
24 Aug 31.6 °C 44 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
25 Aug 24.3 °C 38 % 53 km/h 0.2 mm High 34
26 Aug 26.0 °C 29 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
27 Aug 30.2 °C 29 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
28 Aug 33.0 °C 32 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
29 Aug 36.8 °C 30 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
30 Aug 35.6 °C 36 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
31 Aug 36.3 °C 33 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
1 Sept 32.9 °C 33 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
2 Sept 33.3 °C 34 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
3 Sept 36.2 °C 33 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
4 Sept 35.8 °C 39 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
5 Sept 30.5 °C 37 % 46 km/h 0.3 mm Very high 41
6 Sept 31.7 °C 34 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
7 Sept 35.0 °C 34 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
8 Sept 36.3 °C 35 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
9 Sept 37.5 °C 34 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
10 Sept 37.4 °C 33 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
11 Sept 37.0 °C 38 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
12 Sept 37.0 °C 41 % 35 km/h 0.1 mm High 34
13 Sept 37.6 °C 37 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
14 Sept 37.1 °C 37 % 31 km/h 3.5 mm Moderate 15
15 Sept 28.4 °C 48 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
16 Sept 31.3 °C 40 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
17 Sept 33.9 °C 40 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
18 Sept 36.0 °C 38 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
19 Sept 37.0 °C 36 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
20 Sept 38.0 °C 36 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
21 Sept 37.5 °C 35 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
22 Sept after 38.6 °C 33 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
23 Sept after 37.7 °C 35 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
24 Sept after 37.8 °C 38 % 32 km/h 0.2 mm High 33
25 Sept after 38.5 °C 35 % 36 km/h 0.1 mm High 36
26 Sept after 37.1 °C 38 % 33 km/h 1.2 mm High 28

Its twins: fires that started in the same weather

It started with an FWI of 25.8, a minimum humidity of 24% and 2 days without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 33.

FWI at the start 25.8
Minimum humidity 24 %
Days without rain 2
this fire chosen twins rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar

Outlines of the closest twins

Santa Ana fire, September 2023
3,179 ha 29 days FWI 26.8 Min. humidity 26 % 213 km away, in 2023

First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 1.4 mm on 26 Oct.

What happened to them

8 days
median duration
4,599 ha
median area
30 %
went past 10,000 ha
4.6 mm
rain at the end (median; 30 of 33 had it)

It was 6.3 times larger than the median of its twins and lasted 41 days, against 8 days.

Only 2 of its 33 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 3 of 33, 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 4.6 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

1.2 mmfirst rain
26 Sept5 days after it ended
53km/h · max. gust

It was considered over on 21 Sept, and on 26 Sept 1.2 mm fell. We do not know whether the rain or the firefighters put it out. Twins with rain when they ended: 30 of 33, with a median of 4.6 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 · 5 Aug 2024
After · 28 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 428 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 300: 20 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak428 µg/m³
Days over the guideline36 days
PM10611 µg/m³
Optical depth7.02
11 Aug19 Aug27 Aug4 Sept12 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 · 2,419Every 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 Huacaraje fire last?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 12 August 2024 to 21 September 2024 (41 days). The perimeter dates it from 13 August 2024 to 14 September 2024.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 29,024 hectares (290.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 3 municipalities: Huacaraje (15,928 ha, 2.9 %); Magdalena (12,459 ha, 0.9 %); San Ramón (813 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 38.0 °C, humidity dropped to 24 % and gusts hit 53 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: 33. Their median duration was 8 days and their median area 4,599 ha; 30 % went past 10,000 ha. Only 2 of its 33 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 3 of 33, 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 4.6 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; 2 polygons grouped in this page.
  • Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 13 August 2024 to 14 September 2024. 2,419 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.