Wildfires trigger record calls on EU forces as Spain battles blazes
Spanish prime minister warns of ‘difficult days ahead’ as temperatures remain above 40C
Wildfires have triggered the largest ever deployment of the European Union firefighting force, Spain’s prime minister said, as the country prepares to battle blazes tearing across several regions in the days ahead.
Spanish leader Pedro Sánchez spoke publicly for the first time on Sunday since the wildfires advanced across the country following a heatwave which started more than 12 days ago.
Temperatures of a maximum of 44C were forecast on Sunday in some areas by the national weather agency, with several experiencing continued days of at least more than 40C.
“There are difficult days ahead. Unfortunately, the weather is not on our side,” said Sánchez at a press conference in the northwestern city of Ourense, Galicia, one of the areas most affected as several fires converged to force the closure of the highway and the main train line to Madrid.
The northern front of a fire in Extremadura was also advancing towards Castile and León, local officials warned, describing it as being “out of control”. Some 19 high-risk active fires were burning across the country.
“What is happening in Spain is probably the largest deployment in the history of the European civil protection mechanism,” Sánchez said, acknowledging the solidarity of countries such as France, Slovakia, Germany and the Netherlands and others which have sent assistance.
“The clear answer to having fires of this magnitude now . . . is that the climate emergency ravaging the world is accelerating, becoming more serious and more frequent, especially in places like the Iberian peninsula,” he added.
Southern Europe is experiencing one of its worst wildfire seasons on record, with Greece, Turkey, France, Slovakia and the Balkan nations continuing to battle blazes that have coincided with repeated heatwaves.
The EU’s civil protection mechanism, a supranational firefighting force established in 2001, has been called upon more than 16 times so far this year already — more than in the whole of 2024.
Spain requested assistance from the programme for the first time, while Bulgaria, Albania, Montenegro, Greece and Portugal also requested support.
Many larger European countries had already expanded their firefighting capabilities in response to the rise in risks as a consequence of global warming. But the spread of the latest fires has stretched their capabilities.
Europe is the world’s fastest warming continent, outpacing the global average since the 1980s.
Akshay Deoras, a research scientist at the National Centre for Atmospheric Science and Department of Meteorology at Reading university, said the heatwaves were drying out soil and vegetation, “turning landscapes into tinderboxes”.
“Heatwaves are becoming more intense and frequent due to climate change, which means climate change is directly fuelling wildfires. What we are seeing across Europe right now is a clear example of how extended hot and dry conditions are making wildfires fiercer and harder to control.”