Southern Europe burning, nearly all of Spain at risk of wildfires

Spain will deploy an additional 500 soldiers to fight raging wildfires that have scorched vast stretches of parched woodland during a prolonged heatwave, Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez announced Sunday.

The reinforcements bring the total number of troops on wildfire duty to nearly 2,000, as firefighters struggle to contain multiple blazes, particularly in the northwestern Galicia region, while awaiting aircraft support pledged by other European nations.

In Galicia, crews are battling 12 major wildfires around the city of Ourense, regional leader Alfonso Rueda said at a press conference with Sánchez.

Spain was already tackling 14 large fires on Friday, driven by strong winds and searing heat, with authorities warning of “unfavourable conditions” after flames killed seven people and burned an area roughly the size of London. Emergency chief Virginia Barcones said a nearly two-week heatwave, combined with southerly winds, has made this one of the worst summers for wildfires in two decades. Nearly the entire country was under extreme wildfire risk on Sunday, with blazes having already consumed around 390,000 acres, equivalent to metropolitan London.

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The crisis reflects a wider trend across southern Europe, where oppressive temperatures have sparked fires in Greece, Portugal, and France. Europe, the world’s fastest-warming continent, has long been identified by scientists as a hotspot for increasingly severe climate-driven disasters.

In Spain, which is especially vulnerable, the wildfires have also become political. Sánchez on Sunday urged a nationwide pact to confront the accelerating climate emergency.