PARIS, France – Forest fires have so far burned more than one million hectares of land in the European Union in 2025. This is a record area since records began in 2006. This finding is according to an AFP analysis of data from the European Forest Fire Information System.
The area burned reached 1,015,731 hectares by mid-Thursday, surpassing the record 988,524 hectares set in 2017. This year’s burned area is larger than the island of Cyprus.
These calculations are based on aggregate data compiled by AFP. This estimate is based on the European Forest Fire Information System for each country. Meanwhile, Spain and Portugal continue to battle forest fires.
Four EU countries—Spain, Cyprus, Germany, and Slovakia—experienced their worst year in the two decades for which data is available.
Spain is struggling to combat numerous fires in the west of the country. These fires have claimed the lives of four people. It is the European Union country most affected by the fires. More than 400,000 hectares, equivalent to 40 percent of the total recorded in the entire bloc, have been burned.
Portugal set a record at the EU level. The previous record was 563,530 hectares of land burned in 2017. Now, it is the second most affected country in the bloc. Never before has such a large area burned (approximately 274,000 hectares as of August 21).
Romania ranks third with 126,000 hectares. In France, an area of 35,600 hectares was reduced to ash. The majority of it was in the Aude region, which was devastated by a massive fire in early August.
The European Forest Fire Information System (EFFI) calculations of the European Copernicus Climate Observatory only take into account fires that burned an area of at least 30 hectares.
