Spain to Declare Civil Protection Emergency as Wildfires Devastate Countryside

Madrid: Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez on Tuesday announced that his government will declare a civil protection emergency to tackle the widespread wildfires ravaging several parts of the country.

Sanchez made the declaration during a visit to a firefighting command post in Caceres, in southwest Spain, one of the areas worst affected alongside the northwestern regions of Galicia and Castilla-Leon. Describing the crisis as “a calamity,” he assured government support, including compensation for those who have lost homes, farmland, and livelihoods.

According to the European Forest Fire Information System, more than 382,000 hectares have burned across Spain so far in 2025 — with over 300,000 hectares destroyed in just the past two weeks. Regional emergency services confirmed that at least four people have died this month, while more than 30,000 residents have been forced to evacuate their homes.

Sanchez stressed that the emergency response must go hand in hand with long-term action against climate change, which he identified as the underlying cause of Spain’s worsening wildfire seasons. “We cannot limit ourselves to reacting when fires start. We must prepare the ground so that when they break out, the damage is reduced,” he said.

Scientists warn that global warming is intensifying heatwaves worldwide, lowering soil and air humidity, drying out vegetation, and creating conditions where even small sparks can trigger massive fires. The combination of extreme heat and parched landscapes has made southern Europe, particularly Spain, highly vulnerable to uncontrollable blazes.

This summer, several countries in the Mediterranean have struggled with similar outbreaks, but Spain has been hit especially hard. Firefighters received a brief reprieve on Tuesday as temperatures eased, offering a chance to reinforce containment lines in some regions.