By AFP
August 21, 2025
Wildfires are continuing in Spain and Portugal and Europe as a whole has already had a record year for destruction, according to an AFP analysis of data from the European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS). - Copyright AFP Cesar Manzo
Wildfires have so far ravaged more than one million hectares (2.5 million acres) in the European Union in 2025, a record since statistics began in 2006, according to an AFP analysis of official data.
Surpassing the annual record of 988,524 hectares burnt in 2017, the figure reached 1,015,731 hectares by midday Thursday, representing an area larger than Cyprus.
This calculation is based on a total compiled by AFP from estimates by country from the European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS), at a time when Spain and Portugal are still battling wildfires.
Four countries in the European Union — Spain, Cyprus, Germany, and Slovakia — have already experienced their worst year in two decades of existing data.
Spain is struggling with numerous fires in the west of the country, which have claimed four lives. By far the most affected EU country by fires, with more than 400,000 hectares burnt, Spain accounts for nearly 40 percent of the EU total.
Portugal, which holds the unenviable EU record of 563,530 hectares burnt in 2017, is the second-most affected EU country. As of August 21, it has never had an area of this size (nearly 274,000 hectares) burnt so early in the year.
Romania follows with 126,000 hectares while in France 35,600 hectares of forest have been reduced to ashes, mostly in the southern Aude region, which was ravaged by a massive fire in early August.
These calculations by EFFIS, a component of the European climate monitor Copernicus, only take into account fires that have burnt areas of at least 30 hectares.
Outside the EU, Britain is also experiencing a record year, following fires in April during an early heatwave, as well as in northern Scotland at the end of June.
In the Balkans, Serbia is also recording its worst year since statistics began.
By August 19, forest fires in 22 of the 27 EU countries had already emitted 35 megatons of CO2 since January, an unprecedented amount at this point in the year according to EFFIS, indicating the annual record set in 2017 of 41 megatons could be surpassed.
During the previous record year, in 2017, wildfires had killed more than 200 people in the EU, notably in Portugal, Italy, Spain and France.
In 2025, the provisional EU death toll due to fires is 10, according to an AFP count: two people dead in Cyprus, one in France, and seven in the Iberian Peninsula.
Spain’s deadly wildfires ignite political blame game
By AFP
August 22, 2025
Helicopters have played a key role in the battle against wildfires in Spain - Copyright AFP Thomas COEX
Alfons LUNA
As helicopters dump water over burning ridges and smoke billows across the mountains of northern Spain, residents from wildfire-stricken areas say they feel abandoned by the politicians meant to protect them.
A blaze “swept through those mountains, across those fresh, green valleys and they didn’t stop it?” said Jose Fernandez, 85.
He was speaking from an emergency shelter in Benavente where he took refuge after fleeing his nearby village, Vigo de Sanabria.
While praising the care he received at the shelter, run by the Red Cross, he gave the authorities “a zero” for their handling of the disaster.
Blazes that swept across Spain this month have killed four people and ravaged over 350,000 hectares (865,000 acres) over two weeks, according to the European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS).
Three of those deaths were in the region of Castile and Leon, where Vigo de Sanabria is located, as well as a large part of the land consumed by the fires.
And as happened after last year’s deadly floods in the eastern region of Valencia, the fires have fuelled accusations that politicians mishandled the crisis.
“They committed a huge negligence,” said 65-year-old Jose Puente, forced to flee his home in the village of San Ciprian de Sanabria.
The authorities were “a bit careless, a bit arrogant”, and underestimated how quickly the fire could shift, he added. He, too, had taken refuge at the Benavente shelter.
“They thought it was solved, and suddenly it turned into hell,” said Puente.
-‘Left in God’s hands’ –
Both men are from villages in the Sanabria lake area, a popular summer destination known for its greenery and traditional stone houses, now marred by scorched vegetation from wildfires.
Spain’s decentralised system leaves regional governments in charge of disaster response, though they can ask the central government for help.
The regions hit hard by the wildfires — Castile and Leon, Extremadura, and Galicia — are all governed by the conservative Popular Party (PP), which also ruled Valencia.
The PP, Spain’s main opposition party, accuses Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez of having withheld aid to damage conservative-run regions.
The government has hit back, accusing the PP of having underfunded public services needed face such emergencies. They argue that these regions refused to take the climate change which fuelled the wildfires seriously.
The wildfires have also thrown a spotlight on long-term trends that have left the countryside vulnerable.
Castile and Leon suffers from decades of rural depopulation, an ageing population — and the decline of farming and livestock grazing, both of which once help keep forests clear of tinder.
Spending on fire prevention — by the state and the regions — has dropped by half since 2009, according to study by daily newspaper ABC, with the steepest reductions in the regions hit hardest by the flames this year.
“Everything has been left in God’s hands,” said Fernandez, expressing a widely held view by locals hit by the fires.
– ‘Life and death’ –
Spain’s environmental prosecutor has ordered officials to check whether municipalities affected by wildfires complied with their legal obligation to adopt prevention plans.
In both Castile and Leon and Galicia, protesters — some holding signs reading “Never Again” and “More prevention” — have taken to the streets in recent days calling for stronger action from local officials.
The head of the regional government of Castile and Leon, the Popular Party’s Alfonso Fernandez Manueco, has come under the most scrutiny.
Under his watch in 2022, the region suffered devastating wildfires in Sierra de la Culebra that ravaged over 65,000 hectares.
He has defended the response this year, citing “exceptional” conditions, including an intense heatwave. He has denied reports that inexperienced, last-minute hires were sent to fight the fires.
Jorge de Dios, spokesman for the region’s union for environmental agents APAMCYL who has been on the front line fighting the fires in recent days, criticised working conditions.
Most of the region’s firefighting force “only works four months a year”, during the summer, he told AFP.
Many are students or seasonal workers who participate in “two, three, four campaigns” before leaving.
“We are never going to have veterans,” he said, adding that what was needed were experienced firefighters capable of handling “situations that are clearly life or death”.
By AFP
August 22, 2025
Helicopters have played a key role in the battle against wildfires in Spain - Copyright AFP Thomas COEX
Alfons LUNA
As helicopters dump water over burning ridges and smoke billows across the mountains of northern Spain, residents from wildfire-stricken areas say they feel abandoned by the politicians meant to protect them.
A blaze “swept through those mountains, across those fresh, green valleys and they didn’t stop it?” said Jose Fernandez, 85.
He was speaking from an emergency shelter in Benavente where he took refuge after fleeing his nearby village, Vigo de Sanabria.
While praising the care he received at the shelter, run by the Red Cross, he gave the authorities “a zero” for their handling of the disaster.
Blazes that swept across Spain this month have killed four people and ravaged over 350,000 hectares (865,000 acres) over two weeks, according to the European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS).
Three of those deaths were in the region of Castile and Leon, where Vigo de Sanabria is located, as well as a large part of the land consumed by the fires.
And as happened after last year’s deadly floods in the eastern region of Valencia, the fires have fuelled accusations that politicians mishandled the crisis.
“They committed a huge negligence,” said 65-year-old Jose Puente, forced to flee his home in the village of San Ciprian de Sanabria.
The authorities were “a bit careless, a bit arrogant”, and underestimated how quickly the fire could shift, he added. He, too, had taken refuge at the Benavente shelter.
“They thought it was solved, and suddenly it turned into hell,” said Puente.
-‘Left in God’s hands’ –
Both men are from villages in the Sanabria lake area, a popular summer destination known for its greenery and traditional stone houses, now marred by scorched vegetation from wildfires.
Spain’s decentralised system leaves regional governments in charge of disaster response, though they can ask the central government for help.
The regions hit hard by the wildfires — Castile and Leon, Extremadura, and Galicia — are all governed by the conservative Popular Party (PP), which also ruled Valencia.
The PP, Spain’s main opposition party, accuses Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez of having withheld aid to damage conservative-run regions.
The government has hit back, accusing the PP of having underfunded public services needed face such emergencies. They argue that these regions refused to take the climate change which fuelled the wildfires seriously.
The wildfires have also thrown a spotlight on long-term trends that have left the countryside vulnerable.
Castile and Leon suffers from decades of rural depopulation, an ageing population — and the decline of farming and livestock grazing, both of which once help keep forests clear of tinder.
Spending on fire prevention — by the state and the regions — has dropped by half since 2009, according to study by daily newspaper ABC, with the steepest reductions in the regions hit hardest by the flames this year.
“Everything has been left in God’s hands,” said Fernandez, expressing a widely held view by locals hit by the fires.
– ‘Life and death’ –
Spain’s environmental prosecutor has ordered officials to check whether municipalities affected by wildfires complied with their legal obligation to adopt prevention plans.
In both Castile and Leon and Galicia, protesters — some holding signs reading “Never Again” and “More prevention” — have taken to the streets in recent days calling for stronger action from local officials.
The head of the regional government of Castile and Leon, the Popular Party’s Alfonso Fernandez Manueco, has come under the most scrutiny.
Under his watch in 2022, the region suffered devastating wildfires in Sierra de la Culebra that ravaged over 65,000 hectares.
He has defended the response this year, citing “exceptional” conditions, including an intense heatwave. He has denied reports that inexperienced, last-minute hires were sent to fight the fires.
Jorge de Dios, spokesman for the region’s union for environmental agents APAMCYL who has been on the front line fighting the fires in recent days, criticised working conditions.
Most of the region’s firefighting force “only works four months a year”, during the summer, he told AFP.
Many are students or seasonal workers who participate in “two, three, four campaigns” before leaving.
“We are never going to have veterans,” he said, adding that what was needed were experienced firefighters capable of handling “situations that are clearly life or death”.
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