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BO · Bolivia · –

Ixiamas fire, 13 October 2024 Ixiamas

Out · last detection 21 Oct 2024, 18:29 UTC

The fire started on 13 October 2024 in Ixiamas, Bolivia, and satellites saw it burning for 9 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,517 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 66th largest in La Paz since 2016 (of 106 with a page). Number 184 in Bolivia in 2024, of 295.

Burnt area
4,517ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
9days
13 Oct 2024 – 21 Oct 2024
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
13 Oct
2024
Heat detections
180
in a single hotspot: 54 MW
Danger at start
15
Moderate · FWI index
Average daily power
419MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 13 Oct21 Oct
21 Oct 2024

How it evolved, day by day

13 Oct 2024 · 441 MW · 25 14 Oct 2024 · 510 MW · 36 15 Oct 2024 · 354 MW · 25 16 Oct 2024 · 1,487 MW · 75 18 Oct 2024 · 43 MW · 4 19 Oct 2024 · 10 MW · 5 21 Oct 2024 · 87 MW · 10
13 Oct 16 Oct 21 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

39°high
37km/h · peak gust
31%lowest humidity

It had gone 0 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 23.3 mm on 22 Oct.

This area had burned before

80% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 3,552 ha in 2016, 215 ha in 2018.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 2.9% of the area of London (45 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. Ixiamas 11,828 inhabitants where it started
    4,541 ha reached on 13 Oct
    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 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)
13 Oct 38.2 °C 34 % 25 km/h 0.3 mm Moderate 15
14 Oct 35.2 °C 43 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 15
15 Oct 38.4 °C 34 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
16 Oct 39.1 °C 31 % 34 km/h 0.5 mm Moderate 21
17 Oct 35.0 °C 44 % 32 km/h 0.3 mm Moderate 19
18 Oct 37.6 °C 38 % 33 km/h 2.1 mm Moderate 12
19 Oct 27.7 °C 76 % 32 km/h 19.6 mm Very low 0
20 Oct 33.0 °C 49 % 26 km/h 0.1 mm Very low 2
21 Oct 36.1 °C 43 % 37 km/h 4.2 mm Very low 3
22 Oct after 29.8 °C 65 % 28 km/h 23.3 mm Very low 0

Its twins: fires that started in the same weather

It started with an FWI of 14.6, a minimum humidity of 34% and rain the day before. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 37.

FWI at the start 14.6
Minimum humidity 34 %
Days without rain 0
this fire chosen twins rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar

Outlines of the closest twins

Tambopata fire, August 2016
1,244 ha 6 days FWI 13.0 Min. humidity 34 % 110 km away, in 2016

First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 3.6 mm on 30 Aug.

What happened to them

7 days
median duration
3,409 ha
median area
0 %
went past 10,000 ha
4.4 mm
rain at the end (median; 36 of 37 had it)

It burned an area similar to its twins (4,517 ha against a median of 3,409 ha) and lasted 9 days, against 7 days.

In 1 of 37, 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 4.4 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

23.3 mmfirst rain
22 Octthe day after it ended
37km/h · max. gust

It was considered over on 21 Oct, and on 22 Oct 23.3 mm fell. We do not know whether the rain or the firefighters put it out. Twins with rain when they ended: 36 of 37, with a median of 4.4 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 · 6 Oct 2024
After · 28 Oct 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 17 October 2024 the air beside the fire reached 112 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 63: 4.2 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak112 µg/m³
Days over the guideline8 days
PM10160 µg/m³
Optical depth1.66
11 Oct14 Oct17 Oct20 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 · 180Every 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 Ixiamas fire last?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 13 October 2024 to 21 October 2024 (9 days). The perimeter dates it from 13 October 2024 to 19 October 2024.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 4,517 hectares (45.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Ixiamas (4,541 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 39.1 °C, humidity dropped to 31 % and gusts hit 37 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 21, class 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: 37. Their median duration was 7 days and their median area 3,409 ha; 0 % went past 10,000 ha. In 1 of 37, 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 4.4 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: 19 October 2024 → 21 October 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 13 October 2024 to 19 October 2024. 180 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.