The fires in Spain have prompted the largest ever deployment of the European Union's firefighting forces, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez announced, as the country prepares to deal with the blaze, which has engulfed several regions, News.bg reports.
In comments to journalists on Sunday, amid widespread fires due to the heatwave that has lasted for more than 12 days, Sanchez noted the seriousness of the situation, quoted by the Financial Times.
The National Meteorological Service is predicting temperatures of up to 44 degrees Celsius in some areas, with many areas already registering above 40 degrees for more than ten days.
„We are facing difficult days. "Unfortunately, time is not on our side," Sanchez told a news conference in the northwestern city of Ourense, Galicia, one of the worst-hit areas, where several fires have merged and forced the closure of a highway and the main train line to Madrid. Local authorities have warned that the northern front of the fire in Extremadura is advancing towards Castile and Leon and is "out of control." There were 19 active, high-risk fires burning across the country over the weekend.
“What is happening in Spain is probably the largest deployment in the history of the European Civil Protection Mechanism“, said Sanchez, expressing appreciation for the solidarity of France, Slovakia, Germany, the Netherlands and other countries that sent aid.
“The clear answer to fires of this magnitude is that the climate crisis is accelerating and becoming more serious and more frequent, especially in places like the Iberian Peninsula“, the prime minister added.
Southern Europe is experiencing one of the worst forest fire seasons in history. In addition to Spain, large-scale fires are also burning in Bulgaria, Montenegro, Albania, Greece, Turkey, France, Portugal, Italy and Slovakia, coinciding with heatwaves sweeping the continent.
The EU Civil Protection Mechanism, a supranational firefighting force created in 2001, has been activated more than 16 times this year alone, more than in all of 2024. Spain requested assistance for the first time, and Bulgaria, Albania, Montenegro, Greece and Portugal have also made requests for support.
Even the expanded firefighting capacities of larger European countries are being stretched by the spread of the latest fires. Europe is the fastest-warming continent in the world, outpacing the global average since the 1980s.
“Heatwaves dry out soil and vegetation, turning landscapes into fireboxes“, said researcher Akshay Deoras from the National Centre for Atmospheric Science and the University of Reading.“Heatwaves are becoming more intense and more frequent because of climate change, which means that climate change is directly fuelling wildfires. What we are seeing across Europe right now is a clear example of how prolonged hot and dry conditions are making fires more ferocious and harder to control,“ Deoras added.“