Spanish PM announces civil protection emergency over wildfires

Madrid, Aug 20 (IANS) Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez announced that his government will declare a civil protection emergency in response to widespread wildfires ravaging the country.

Sanchez made the announcement on Tuesday during a visit to a firefighting command post in Caceres, southwest Spain, one of the worst-hit areas along with the northwestern regions of Galicia and Castilla-Leon.

Calling the situation "a calamity," Sanchez pledged government support, including compensation for those who have suffered losses from the fires.

According to the European Forest Fire Information System, more than 382,000 hectares have burned in Spain so far in 2025, with over 300,000 hectares destroyed in the past two weeks alone.

Regional emergency services reported that four people have died this month and more than 30,000 residents have been evacuated.

Sanchez also underlined the need to confront climate change, describing it as the root cause of the crisis.

"We cannot limit ourselves to reacting when fires start. We must prepare the ground so that when they break out, the damage is reduced," he said.

Global warming is driving longer, more intense and more frequent heatwaves around the world. By lowering humidity in the air, vegetation and soil, and reducing the threshold at which materials ignite, heatwaves turn vegetation into highly flammable fuel and make wildfires even harder to control.

While the phenomenon has fuelled fires across southern Europe this summer, Spain has been hit particularly hard, finally getting some respite on Tuesday.

--IANS

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