Wildfires have so far ravaged more than one million hectares (2.5 million acres) in the European Union in 2025, a record since statistics began in 2006, according to an AFP analysis of data from the European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS). Surpassing the annual record of 988,524 hectares burnt in 2017, the figure reached 1,015,731 hectares by midday Thursday, representing an area larger than Cyprus.
This calculation is based on a total compiled by AFP from estimates by country by EFFIS, at a time when Spain and Portugal are still battling wildfires. Four countries in the European Union, Spain, Cyprus, Germany, and Slovakia, have already experienced their worst year in two decades of existing data. In Spain, the country hardest hit by the fires, firefighters are currently continuing to battle the flames.
According to Effis, more than 400,000 hectares of land have burned since the beginning of the year – more than ever before in a single year. Four people have died in the fires. The spread of the fires in recent weeks was favored by an unusual heat wave with temperatures reaching up to 45 degrees Celsius. Temperatures have been falling since Monday. Spanish Civil Protection Chief Virginia Barcones expressed hope on Thursday for "significant progress in the favorable development of numerous" fires.
Portugal, which holds the EU record of 563,530 hectares burnt in 2017, is the second-most affected EU country. It has never had an area of this size (nearly 274,000 hectares) burnt as of August 21. Romania follows with 126,000 hectares while in France, 35,600 hectares of forest have been reduced to ashes, mostly in the Aude region, which was ravaged by a massive fire in early August.
These calculations by EFFIS, a component of the European climate monitor Copernicus, only take into account fires that have burnt areas of at least 30 hectares. By August 19, 2025, forest fires in 22 of the 27 EU member states had already emitted 35 megatons of CO2, an unprecedented amount for this time of year, according to Effis. The previous negative record from 2017 was 41 megatons, and given the worrying data, this could even be exceeded in 2025.
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