Record European wildfires burn 540,000
Official EU data shows wildfires scorched 540,000 hectares across Europe from mid-June to early September 2026, a figure more than double the 20-year
Wildfires burned approximately 540,000 hectares of land across the European Union between June 18 and September 2, 2026, according to data from the European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS). This area, equivalent to more than 1.3 million acres, is more than twice the size of Luxembourg and resulted from over 1,000 individual fires.
Multiple heat waves, which scientists link to climate change, created tinderbox conditions. The extreme weather also caused more than 30,000 excess deaths and widespread drought. Hundreds of thousands of people were forced to flee their homes, with major evacuations occurring in Spain and France. Temperature records were shattered, triggering dangerous fires even in typically cool and damp regions like Belgium and Scotland.
Exceptional scale of destruction
The total burned area is well above the average for the previous two decades. However, it remains below the record set just one year earlier in 2025, when fires consumed more than 800,000 hectares in the same period.
Four of the EU's 15 largest wildfires from the past decade occurred during the 2026 summer. A particularly devastating week from July 16 to 22 saw nearly 190,000 hectares burned, the highest weekly total since at least 2006. Three massive fires erupted in succession during this period.
| Fire Location | Start Date | Approximate Area Burned | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ávila, Spain | July 22 | 42,000+ hectares | Considered Spain's worst modern wildfire; forced thousands to evacuate. |
| Gironde, France | July 22 | 37,000 hectares | A megafire near Bordeaux. |
| Huelva, Spain | August | 44,000 hectares | The sixth-largest wildfire ever recorded in Europe. |
| Andalusia, Spain | July | Not specified | Led to more than a dozen deaths. |
Southern Europe ravaged
France broke its national record for the total area burned in a single year before the end of July. Spain, for its part, hovered near its cumulative annual record for weeks, briefly surpassing it in mid-August. Other southern EU nations including Greece, Portugal, and Italy also experienced an active fire season, a common but intensifying summer phenomenon in the region.
Northern regions impacted
The crisis was not confined to Mediterranean climates. Belgium faced its worst wildfire in over a century in August. A single blaze consumed thousands of hectares in the east of the country, causing Belgium to break its annual area-burned record since at least 2006.
The EFFIS figures include only fires covering at least 30 hectares and may differ from national data due to methodological differences. Totals are subject to revision as new satellite imagery is analyzed. An AFP photo of holidaymakers on a beach in southwestern France, framed by the smoke of a major wildfire, became an emblematic image of the devastating summer.
