PARIS/LISBON: 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 analysis of official data.

Surpassing the annual record of 988,524 hectares burnt in 2017, the figure reached 1,015,731 hectares by midday on Thursday, representing an area larger than Cyprus.

This calculation is based on a total compiled from estimates by country from the European Forest Fire Information System (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. Spain is struggling with numerous fires in the west of the country, which have claimed four lives. By far the most affected EU country by fires, with more than 400,000 hectares burnt, Spain accounts for nearly 40 percent of the EU total.

Portugal, which holds the unenviable EU record of 563,530 hectares burnt in 2017, is the second-most affected EU country. As of August 21, it has never had an area of this size (nearly 274,000 hectares) burnt so early in the year.

Romania follows with 126,000 hectares while in France 35,600 hectares of forest have been reduced to ashes, mostly in the southern 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.

Outside the EU, Britain is also experiencing a record year, following fires in April during an early heatwave, as well as in northern Scotland at the end of June. In the Balkans, Serbia is also recording its worst year since statistics began.

By August 19, forest fires in 22 of the 27 EU countries had already emitted 35 megatons of CO2 since January, an unprecedented amount at this point in the year according to EFFIS, indicating the annual record set in 2017 of 41 megatons could be surpassed.

During the previous record year, in 2017, wildfires had killed more than 200 people in the EU, notably in Portugal, Italy, Spain and France. In 2025, the provisional EU death toll due to fires is 10, according to a count: two people dead in Cyprus, one in France, and seven in the Iberian Peninsula.

Portugal blaze

A Portuguese firefighter suffered severe burns on Thursday in one of the wildfires ravaging central and northern parts of the country when the blaze suddenly changed direction and engulfed his fire engine, the civil protection authority said.

A video posted online showed at least three firefighters in the Valverde area running away from rapidly advancing flames, fanned by gusts of wind, and leaving their vehicle behind.

The next moment, a wall of fire completely shrouded the vehicle.

Published in Dawn, August 22th, 2025