Spain is in the grip of its most destructive wildfire season in modern memory, with flames ripping through the northwest and threatening to make 2025 the country’s worst year in more than 30 years.
According to the European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS), a staggering 382,607 hectares have already burned since January – an area almost the size of Mallorca.
The scale of destruction dwarfs last year’s total ninefold and even surpasses the infamous 2022 season, previously considered the bleakest on record.
Civil Protection reports around 40 fires still active nationwide, 23 of them at Operational Status 2, meaning they are deemed especially severe.
The vast majority are concentrated in Galicia, Castilla y Leo, and Extremadura, where firefighters are stretched to the limit.
Galicia: a firestorm with no precedent
Galicia has become the epicentre of the infernos, with seven major fires still burning in Ourense. The largest – the Larouco fire – has scorched 20,000 hectares, making it the most destructive blaze in Galician history.
Two other fires, Maceda (3,500 ha) and Vilardevos-Fumaces-Trepa (100 ha), were finally stabilised overnight.
Yet the combined total of Galicia’s active fires has already ravaged more than 67,000 hectares, devastating rural communities and prompting mass evacuations.
Castilla y Leon: Flames at the gates of national parks
Meanwhile in Castilla y Leon, 29 fires remain active, 10 of them at the most serious Level 2, all in the province of Leon.
Blazes are threatening protected jewels such as Picos de Europa National Park and Lake Sanabria, forcing thousands from their homes.
The situation has been exacerbated by the spread of flames from Extremadura’s Jarilla fire, which has already consumed 15,500 hectares across a 155-kilometre perimeter and continues to advance toward Salamanca.
A season defined by extremes
The timing could hardly be worse. Spain has just emerged from a brutal 16-day heat wave, with record-shattering highs of 45C, leaving parched vegetation primed to ignite. Winds and drought conditions are further fuelling uncontrollable fire behaviour.
EFFIS data shows the destruction so far in 2025 exceeds the total burned area of 2022 – 306,555 hectares across 493 fires – long seen as the benchmark for catastrophe.
By contrast, just 42,615 hectares burned in 2024, a year now looking like a rare reprieve in a grim cycle of escalating climate extremes.
The outlook
With summer not yet over, experts fear the crisis will deepen. The Copernicus monitoring programme warns that the scale of the fires is a stark indicator of the climate pressures Spain now faces.
Prolonged heatwaves and tinder-dry landscapes threaten to make ‘mega-fires’ the new normal.
