Reacción a "Extreme heat and wind keep numerous fires burning on the peninsula"

Spain is experiencing a series of simultaneous fires marked by heat waves and storms. What is happening in Spain at the moment is a situation of simultaneous fires, triggered by a series of factors: a spring with abundant rainfall, which has favoured the growth and accumulation of vegetation (especially grass, where fires usually originate and start), a month of June with abnormally high average temperatures, which has dried out and stressed the vegetation, and a prolonged heatwave since the beginning of August, which has created the perfect scenario for simultaneous fires.

Spain has always experienced summers with heatwaves, this phenomenon is not unusual for our country, but what is unusual is the number of heatwaves that have affected us in recent years, their duration and the average temperatures reached during these waves. These meteorological phenomena have often been linked to very complex fire situations. We need only recall the years 1992 and 1994, when the largest area on record was burned according to MITECO fire statistics, or the years 2005, 2012 and, more recently, 2022. What we are experiencing these days with regard to the simultaneity of fires and the phenomena that drive them is well known to forest fire specialists: a combination of heat waves with convective phenomena that cause storms to form, giving rise to fires wherever they pass. What is different is that forest fires are affecting more and more people, towns and infrastructure, greatly increasing the complexity of their management and control.

Although all these fires we are seeing have originated under the same meteorological scenario of a combination of heat waves and storms, each one has its own particularities and should not all be analysed from the same perspective. Some are affecting urban-forest interface areas, which has required mass evacuations, such as the fires in Zamora and León, the fire in Tarifa in Cádiz and the fire in Tres Cantos in Madrid. Others are affecting less populated areas without becoming a civil protection problem, but they are having a major ecological impact by burning protected natural areas, including World Heritage Sites such as Las Médulas.

The fact is that fire does not discriminate and advances wherever it finds fuel to burn. Spain has always experienced summers with little fire activity and really bad summers with a lot of activity accompanied by high complexity. From our point of view, there is no doubt that this is a summer with fire activity, but not exceptional like others, at least for the moment, as there is still quite a bit of summer ahead.

Despite this phenomenon, we must not lose sight of the fact that we live in a country with a Mediterranean climate, and that forest fires are part of our ecosystems and, therefore, must be part of our society.

The simultaneous scenario we are seeing these days reflects the complexity of forest fire management. This complexity cannot be addressed with simple solutions or by focusing attention solely on improving and strengthening the emergency services that deal with fires, which is also always necessary. We need living landscapes that are diverse, resistant and resilient in order to manage these large forest fires, as we pointed out in the Pau Costa Foundation's Declaration on Large Forest Fires in Spain and as stated in the document published by the Spanish Forestry Institute (INE). diverse, resistant and resilient landscapes in order to manage these large forest fires, as we pointed out in the Pau Costa Foundation's Declaration on the large forest fires in Spain and as set out in the document published by MITECO Strategic guidelines for forest fire management in Spain, developed by the Committee for the Fight against Forest Fires (CLIF), and the Proposals for the comprehensive prevention of forest fires by the Entretantos Foundation.

It will not be until the end of the campaign (there are still weeks to go), and with the relevant data, that we will be able to assess the behaviour of these large forest fires, make comparisons with previous years and draw lessons learned from 2025. Only then will we be able to know how exceptional this scenario is.