Record Wildfires Devastate France and Spain as the EU Deploys Emergency Aid

Record-breaking wildfires ravage southern and western Europe, forcing hundreds of thousands to evacuate as France and Spain battle unprecedented blazes with international assistance through the EU Civil Protection Mechanism.

Record-Breaking Wildfires in France and Spain

Record-breaking wildfires are taking a heavy toll on countries in southern and western Europe, with France and Spain appearing to be the most severely affected. Southern and western Europe have been plagued by heatwaves for weeks, beginning with the first wave of 40-degree temperatures in June, which was followed by subsequent record highs. Now, firefighters in Spain and France are battling fires of a scale that has surprised everyone.

In France, the southwestern regions of Gironde and Landes were the hardest hit. The fire in Gironde has destroyed approximately 42,000 hectares of land and around 240 homes, while flames consumed about 40,000 hectares in the vicinity of Bordeaux. In total, more than 220,000 people were forced to leave their homes in the Gironde region.

The situation is similar in Spain, where Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez reported that 130,000 hectares have already burned nationwide. Fires broke out near Burgohondo close to Madrid, as well as in the Ávila, Toledo, and Castellón regions. Approximately 70,000 people from these four areas were forced to evacuate, and another 40,000 were placed under lockdown with orders to remain indoors, prompting the Spanish government to declare a national state of emergency—the first time in Spain’s history that a state of emergency has been declared due to wildfires.

Spanish Government Response and Crisis Management

On Tuesday, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez stated after a meeting of the State Committee for Coordination and Direction (CECOD) that a “light at the end of the tunnel” is beginning to appear.

The Spanish government will continue to mobilize all resources until the last flame is extinguished. Today, the government declared the areas affected by the fires as disaster zones, thereby initiating the implementation of aid programs, and appealed to the public for responsible and joint action in the fight against the fires.

The head of government also appealed to regional authorities, stating that denying climate change is the worst fuel in the fight against a climate crisis that worsens year after year and causes record-breaking phenomena.

The EU Civil Protection Mechanism in Action

Both France and Spain have received assistance from European Union member states through the EU Civil Protection Mechanism. When a country requests assistance through this mechanism, the support request is shared with all 37 participating countries, each of which can offer available aircraft, helicopters, firefighting teams, equipment, or experts, while the European Commission coordinates and co-finances their deployment. If national offers prove insufficient, the EU can deploy rescEU, its own strategic reserve comprising a fleet of 22 aircraft and 5 helicopters.

Under the mechanism, 7 aircraft and 4 helicopters from Croatia, the Czech Republic, Germany, Portugal, Slovakia, Sweden, and Turkey were sent to France, with the majority belonging to the rescEU firefighting fleet. In Spain, the EU mobilized 6 aircraft from Greece, Italy, and Turkey, alongside 134 personnel and 41 vehicles from Portugal.

Poland is also sending assistance, with Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of National Defense Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz announcing that military CASA transport aircraft crews are on standby to transport Polish firefighters and equipment to Spain, including specialists from the Ground Forest Fire Fighting (GFFF) module.

Importantly, as part of the EU’s preparatory actions ahead of this year’s wildfire season, firefighting teams from other European countries were pre-positioned in France and Spain, enabling an immediate reinforcement of national forces when support was needed.

Commissioner for Crisis Management Hadja Lahbib stated that hundreds of thousands of people have been forced to leave their homes while firefighters battle walls of fire under dramatic conditions to save lives and communities, emphasizing that no country should face a catastrophe on this scale alone and highlighting Europe’s built-in common response capacity.

How the EU Civil Protection Mechanism Works

Established by the European Commission in October 2001, the EU Civil Protection Mechanism aims to strengthen civil protection cooperation between EU countries and 10 additional participating states: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Iceland, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Norway, Serbia, Turkey, and Ukraine.

Any country affected by a disaster, within or outside Europe, can request emergency assistance through the mechanism. Upon this request, the EU’s Emergency Response Coordination Centre (ERCC) mobilizes assistance or provides expertise, with the Commission playing a key role in coordinating disaster response and covering transport and operational costs.

European Wildfire Statistics and 2025 Review

Members of the Joint Research Centre (JRC), one of the European Commission’s Directorates-General, analyzed last year’s fires across EU member states and assessed in their report that the 2025 fire season was the worst in the history of the European Union.

Based on satellite analysis from the European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS), over 1 million hectares of forest within EU territory were devastated by fires. A total of 7,783 fires were recorded across 25 of the 27 EU member states, burning 1,079,538 hectares of forest, with only Malta and Luxembourg spared. EFFIS also analyzes territories outside the EU, including other European nations, the Middle East, and North Africa, noting that across all analyzed territories in 2025, 2,242,195 hectares of forest burned, including 1,092,095 hectares in non-EU European countries and 70,562 hectares in the Middle East and North Africa.