Spain is battling fires on multiple fronts, with roughly 77,000 hectares burned in the Madrid region and the provinces of Avila and Toledo. In the Valencia region's Castellon province, an uncontrolled fire has burned over 7,000 hectares and hit some 80,000 residents in 19 towns, while Andalusia's Huelva province saw its sixth blaze in a week ignite Monday near Lucena del Puerto, a town of more than 3,000 people.
Defense Minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz announced Poland's assistance on X. "Poland will help Spain fight fires that are threatening residents of many regions", he wrote, adding that CASA aircrews were on standby to transport firefighters and gear once the military received specific requests from Spain's State Fire Service.
Madrid has ordered a halt to harvest work involving farm machinery for as long as the fire emergency lasts. Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska called Monday and Tuesday critical for containing the central Spain fires, citing a brief improvement in weather even as temperatures stayed above 30 degrees Celsius. Highs near or above 40 degrees are forecast to return from Wednesday.
Spain has also received six firefighting aircraft from Greece, Italy and Turkey and 134 Portuguese firefighters with 41 vehicles, coordinated through the European Commission.
The wildfires reflect a broader surge this year: Spain and France have together lost about 300,000 hectares to fire, per the European Forest Fire Information System. France has logged more than 13,500 fires burning 116,000 hectares since January, its highest tally on record, while Spanish officials measured 153,000 hectares burned in the first half of the year — six times the level seen over the same period in 2025.
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Source: PAP