Spain breaks a grim record: over 410,000 hectares burned in the worst wave of fires this century

More than 410,000 hectares have already burned in the worst wave of fires of the century, according to confirmation from the European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS). The figure not only dwarfs last year’s 42,615 hectares, but multiplies the devastation tenfold and surpasses every previous record.

With 252 fire outbreaks recorded, the north and west of the country account for most of the Large Forest Fires, those in which more than 500 hectares are devastated per incident. On Monday 25 August alone, Civil Protection reported 14 active fires, most of them in León, while drought and extreme heat fuel a situation that is already close to unprecedented.

The figure is devastating: 2025 has even surpassed the 306,555 hectares burned in 2022, until now the most devastating year. Spain is thus facing a summer marked by an environmental emergency and the prospect of a record that nobody wanted to break.