AP —
Firefighters in central Spain battled Wednesday to extinguish a wildfire that has burned more than 32,000 hectares (79,000 acres) in one of the country’s largest-ever wildfires.
The fire in rural Guadalajara comes less than two weeks after a major blaze devastated a small expatriate community in southern Spain. The small but highly toxic fire was one of the deadliest wildfires in the southern European country, killing 13 people, including several foreigners.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez visited fire-hit areas in Guadalajara on Wednesday and called for an interparty agreement to fight climate change.
“Every year we see more and more clearly how climate change is killing and destroying the wealth of our communities,” Sánchez said in the village of Tamajón, less than two hours’ drive northeast of Madrid. “This isn’t politics. This is science and it’s about facts.”
Approximately 34 villages have been evacuated in the area, but no serious injuries or deaths have been reported. More than 200 firefighters were assisted by ground vehicles and aircraft on Wednesday.
Spain has already seen 22 major forest fires this year, defined as fires that have burned more than 500 hectares (1,235 acres).
The Socialist Party leader said more than 100,000 hectares (247,000 acres) had already been burned in the first half of this year, comparable to Spain’s average annual total over the past 10 years.
Spain’s Minister of Environment and Transition Sara Argesen described the Guadalajara fire as “one of the largest in our country’s recent history” and the largest ever for the Castile-La Mancha region.
The Guadalajara wildfire is the second-largest fire in Spain’s history, after last year’s burning of around 37,000 hectares (91,000 acres) in the country’s northwest, according to data from the Ministry of Environment and Transition cited by the EFE news agency.
Local authorities said firefighters, assisted by water cannons, have so far protected homes in all 40 villages in the burnt area, 90% of which are in national parks. Castilla-La Mancha regional president Emiliano García-Page said firefighters hope to have the week-long blaze under control by Friday.
Miguel Ángel Moreno, head of Zarzuela de Hadraque, said on Friday that 100 residents had been evacuated and 14 were in Red Cross shelters.
Moreno said firefighters should be praised as much as the soccer players who won Sunday’s World Cup.
Firefighters “had to run from one end of the village to the other to extinguish the fire,” Moreno told Spanish state television TVE. “Besides the heroes who won the World Cup, there are also heroes who remain nameless.”
The heatwave, which began on Tuesday, is expected to reach its peak between Wednesday and Thursday, with temperatures expected to reach 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) in some inland regions and exceed 42 degrees Celsius (108 degrees Fahrenheit) in parts of southern Spain’s Andalusia region, Spain’s meteorological agency said.
Guadalajara and large areas of Spain were under high temperature warning.
Like many other European countries, Spain is experiencing a heatwave that, combined with winds and limited rainfall, creates ideal conditions for small wildfires to spread unchecked.
Europe is the world’s warmest continent, with temperatures rising twice as fast as the global average since the 1980s, according to the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Agency.
Globally, 2025 was the third hottest year on record, bringing severe heatwaves across Europe. Scientists have warned that climate change is worsening the frequency and intensity of heat and dryness, particularly in southeastern Europe, making the region more vulnerable to health impacts and wildfires.
Firefighters in Sicily said they had carried out more than 1,000 operations since Saturday and put fire stations across Italy on double shifts to tackle the blaze.
The latest blaze is a wildland and urban fire in Agrigento in central-western Sicily, with 100 people evacuated from their homes and clinics and 22 patients transferred to other facilities, the national service said. Firefighters were particularly concerned about a nearby oxygen storage plant.
In recent days, Italy’s Civil Protection Agency has declared the highest risk of wildfires across Sicily. Winds and temperatures near or above 40°C (100°F) have sparked fires from near Palermo on the north coast to Catania in the east and now Agrigento in the west.
Greece was sweltering in what was expected to be the last of a four-day heatwave. Temperatures were expected to exceed 42 degrees Celsius (107 degrees Fahrenheit), and several parts of southern and central Greece, including large areas of Athens, were at the highest alert level due to wildfire risk.
Meanwhile, Cyprus has issued a warning as temperatures are expected to reach a maximum of 43 degrees Celsius (109 degrees Celsius).
It hasn’t rained in some parts of the UK for more than a month, and much of the southern half of the country is in a state of “extended dry weather”, on the verge of drought. Thames Water, the country’s biggest water company, has banned its 10 million customers from using hoses to water lawns or wash cars from Thursday.
French public health authorities said Wednesday that the country recorded at least 5,700 more deaths than usual during last month’s historic heat wave, significantly increasing estimates of the feared death toll from record temperatures.
France’s public health agency announced that 21,674 people died from all causes in areas affected by the heatwave between June 17 and July 2. However, without the heatwave, the number of deaths in the same region would have been expected to be much lower at 15,910, based on statistical modeling using data from previous years, the report said.
