PARIS : A record-breaking summer that saw more than 1,000
wildfires has torched some 540,000 hectares of land across the European Union
since mid-June, according to official data—an area more than twice the size of
Luxembourg.
Multiple back-to-back heatwaves fuelled by climate change
scorched Europe, causing more than 30,000 excess deaths, widespread drought and
devastating wildfires that forced hundreds of thousands of people to flee their
homes, particularly in Spain and France.
Temperature records across the continent were smashed,
triggering dangerous blazes even in normally cool, wet areas such as Belgium
and Scotland.
The total area affected by fire between June 18 and
September 2 is well above the average for the previous 20 years, according to
data from the European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS).
But it remains below the record set in 2025, when fires
consumed more than 800,000 hectares between those dates.
Four of the EU’s 15 largest fires of the last 10 years
occurred this summer, according to EFFIS data.
Fires that broke out between July 16 and 22 consumed
nearly 190,000 hectares of forest, the most for that week-long period since at
least 2006, according to harmonised weekly data from EFFIS.
Three massive fires erupted in succession during this
period: two in Spain and one in France.
One in the Spanish province of Avila, near Madrid, broke
out on July 22 and went on to destroy more than 42,000 hectares.
Thousands of people were forced to evacuate their homes
and the Spanish government said it considered the blaze the worst in the
country’s modern
history.
Another fire in the Andalusia region of southern Spain in
July led to more than a dozen deaths.
A mega-fire that started in France’s Gironde region, near
Bordeaux, on the same day consumed 37,000 hectares of forest.
Another broke out in the Spanish province of Huelva in
August, destroying nearly 44,000 hectares, making it the sixth largest ever in
Europe.
Before the end of July, France had already broken its
record for the total area burned in a single year since records began.
Meanwhile, Spain has been hovering near its cumulative
record for the same point in the year for weeks—briefly surpassing it in
mid-August before dropping back below.
Greece, Portugal and Italy are among the other southern EU
nations that experienced an active fire season, a common summer phenomenon in
the region.
Further north, Belgium faced its worst wildfire in over a
century in August, a blaze that consumed thousands of hectares in the east of
the country.
This single fire caused the country to break its record
for the total area burned in a year since at least 2006.
EFFIS figures only include fires covering a minimum of 30
hectares.
The figures may differ from reported national data due to methodological differences, and the totals are subject to change as new satellite imagery becomes available.
