The devastation wrought by wildfires across the European Union could rival last year’s record of more than one million hectares burnt, with the total area affected reaching 464,344 hectares by Saturday despite the season being less than halfway through.

The EU’s Copernicus satellite monitoring service updated its weekly summary of burnt areas several times this week.

“For the moment, the situation is similar to last year,” an EU official told journalists on Wednesday. “Last year was the worst – and the whole of August awaits us.”

Wildfires that have raged across Spain since 20 July have already destroyed more than 80,000 hectares, bringing the country’s total for 2026 to over 150,000 hectares.

In France, where mass evacuations have taken place as fires tore through the Gironde region around Bordeaux, as well as the south-east and areas near Paris, more than 116,000 hectares have burnt so far this year, already a national record.

The EU’s Emergency Response Coordination Centre (ERCC) is also bracing for outbreaks in Italy and Greece in the coming weeks, alongside further fires in France and Spain, as another heatwave grips much of the continent.

The year has already brought other unwanted milestones. The Netherlands requested assistance through the EU Civil Protection Mechanism (UCPM) for the first time after a wildfire in the country’s east in April.

“This was the record time for us to start,” the EU official said. “Our team starts in June, normally, because that’s the traditional wildfire season.”

Situation room

From its crisis room in Brussels, the ERCC remains in constant contact with EU countries, convening weekly meetings where national authorities share information and coordinate responses to emerging emergencies.

“We need to make sure that we have the fleet ready to act when something bad happens in any corner of the world,” the official said, referring to Europe’s limited fleet of firefighting aircraft.

Across Europe, the Civil Protection Mechanism can be activated when national resources are overwhelmed, covering the EU as well as 10 participating countries in the Western Balkans and elsewhere. The growing frequency of requests is forcing the ERCC to adapt.

After fluctuating between 15 and 30 activations a year during the 2010s, requests have recently averaged around 60 annually (66 in 2023, 58 in 2024 and 64 in 2025).

“We are improving every day. We are learning,” the official said.

(rh, cz)