Loreto fire, 22 October 2023 Loreto
The fire started on 22 October 2023 in Loreto, Bolivia, and satellites saw it burning for 5 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 7,067 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 268th largest in Beni since 2016 (of 902 with a page). Number 85 in Bolivia in 2023, of 248.
- Burnt area
- 7,067ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 5days
- 22 Oct 2023 – 26 Oct 2023
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- municipalities
- Started on
- 22 Oct
- 2023
- Heat detections
- 237
- in a single hotspot: 105 MW
- Danger at start
- 27
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 3.2GW
- sum of detected power
Where it burned
How it evolved, day by day
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
It had gone one day without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 8.2 mm on 29 Oct.
This area had burned before
91% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 3,329 ha in 2016, 1,275 ha in 2017, 3,200 ha in 2018, 1,844 ha in 2019, 2,762 ha in 2020, 3,174 ha in 2021, 486 ha in 2022. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 6,426 ha that had burned before.
- 3,200 ha Loreto fire, September 2018 5,476 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,390 ha Loreto fire, September 2016 3,262 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,133 ha Loreto fire, October 2021 5,121 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 445 ha Loreto fire, October 2021 3,101 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
7,109 ha1.0 %
Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the GWIS perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance is from the town centre to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 22 Oct | 41.2 °C | 25 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 23 Oct | 40.5 °C | 29 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 24 Oct | 39.3 °C | 33 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 25 Oct | 39.0 °C | 38 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 26 Oct | 32.6 °C | 60 % | 45 km/h | 8.0 mm | Very low 2 |
| 27 Oct after | 31.4 °C | 65 % | 60 km/h | 6.9 mm | Very low 2 |
| 28 Oct after | 34.3 °C | 49 % | 64 km/h | 1.0 mm | Low 8 |
| 29 Oct after | 33.4 °C | 57 % | 62 km/h | 8.2 mm | Very low 2 |
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
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 · CopernicusOn 26 October 2023 the air beside the fire reached 136 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 68: 4.6 times the WHO daily guideline (15).
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 · 237Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 14,845 haLoreto10 September 2025 · 8 days · 2 km away
- 17,168 haLoreto17 October 2023 · 12 days · 21 km away
- 10,737 haLoreto6 November 2023 · 13 days · 21 km away
- 37,586 haVilla Tunari5 November 2023 · 14 days · 31 km away
- 17,297 haLoreto29 October 2019 · 8 days · 38 km away
- 13,171 haLoreto6 September 2016 · 6 days · 40 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Loreto fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 22 October 2023 and 26 October 2023: 5 days between the first and last heat detection of the perimeter.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 7,067 hectares (70.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Loreto (7,109 ha, 1.0 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 41.2 °C, humidity dropped to 25 % and gusts hit 64 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 29, 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.
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
Satellite cross-check
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
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.