Another record breaking 2025 wildfire season puts Europe to the test

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As the 2025 fire season draws to a close in Europe, recent data reveals that wildfires are becoming more frequent, intense and destructive than at any time during the twenty-first century. 

EFFIS Statistics Portal

At the beginning of October, Copernicus counted more than one million hectares burnt in the EU, 35% in forests, with over 2,100 fires reported. This breaks all previous records, with triple the amount of land burnt compared to the European average for 2006-2024. The burned area is equivalent to one-third the size of Belgium.

Beyond the hardest-hit countries of Spain (322 fires) and Portugal (184 fires), wildfires raged in France (249 fires), Bulgaria (92 fires) and Greece (65 fires). Italy topped the EU-27 list with 589 fires, while Romania recorded 489. Among EU-27 countries, only the Czech Republic, Estonia, Lithuania, Luxembourg and Malta reported no wildfires. 

The fires have been indiscriminate in their destruction, ravaging protected areas such as Spain’s Picos de Europa National Park, destroying over 2,000 hectares of agricultural land in Portugal and France, and forcing evacuations from residential buildings and popular tourist sites. With at least 10 fatalities according to AFP, the full ecological, public health and social impacts remain difficult to quantify. The European Court of Auditors estimates economic losses at €2 billion annually, while the fires have emitted 42 million tonnes of CO2 and 80 kt CO2 equivalent of methane in 2025 alone. These emissions will remain in the atmosphere and further drive a warming climate, leading to future fires and contributing to a climate feedback loop. Moreover, they contain pollutants strongly linked to respiratory and cardiovascular diseases, as monitored by FIRE-RES in a study dedicated to the atmospheric pollutant concentrations that firefighters face during wildfires.

Experts agree that the severity and frequency of wildfires across Europe are increasing. The question is no longer whether fires can be stopped, but how to adapt to them in the face of accelerating climate change. Establishing new configurations of landscapes through a mosaic approach with a variety of management methods offers hope for improved adaptation and can provide more security in the face of drought, rising temperatures, and large thermal anomalies.

Such landscape approaches have proven their value this season. Vineyards, for example, have emerged as protective barriers against fire, by stopping an advancing blaze in July in the French department of Aude and mitigating the spread of fire in Valdeorras, Galicia, in August. This demonstrates how well-managed agricultural land can provide protection. Around twenty wineries and winegrowers’ groups are now joining the FIRE WINE initiative, among the FIRE-RES Innovation Actions, which recognises key players in fire prevention working towards resilient mosaic landscapes. In contrast, in areas where agricultural land has been abandoned, dried-out vegetation provides additional fuel, meaning fires often spread unchecked and far more rapidly.

Unprecedented fire activity also triggered the biggest collective deployment of EU firefighters in history, showcasing the potential of European cooperation and solidarity. In July, a large fire required the activation of the EU Civil Protection Mechanism in Cyprus, with the immediate deployment of two Canadair aircraft from the European rescEU joint firefighting fleet, whilst a specialised Dutch team helped to extinguish a fire in Galicia, Spain. In Greece, Bulgarian firefighters worked with their Greek colleagues in the Halkidiki region to tackle the flames, and in southern France, pre-positioned Romanian teams supported local authorities in responding to a fire near Perpignan. All are highly commendable examples of European solidarity in action.

FIRE-RES plays a key role in strengthening cross-border preparedness and interoperability. Among its initiatives, it developed a matrix tool designed to evaluate the ability of multinational teams to interoperate effectively during Extreme Wildfire Events, and designed a training program for wildfire risk management professionals to further enhance the EU’s capacity to respond to large-scale wildfires.

Eurostat data shows the EU had 390,600 professional firefighters last year, up nearly 8% from 2023. The severe wildfire season has increased political attention on joint resources and the need for permanent structural programmes rather than case-by-case responses. European Commissioner for Preparedness, Crisis Management and Equality Hadja Lahbib travelled to Athens on 17 July to discuss joint efforts in fire prevention, preparedness and response with local authorities. The wildfires also featured prominently in Ursula von der Leyen’s September State of the European Union speech, as she announced a proposal for a new European firefighting hub based in Cyprus, and thanked the 760 firefighters who were dispatched this summer on cross-regional firefighting missions.

Although these successful examples highlight the value of European cooperation, the multi-dimensional drivers of wildfires are complex, and it is essential to move beyond suppression and active prevention to a far broader approach, where existing European policies work cohesively to bring stakeholders together, ensure greater resilience, and improve landscape management. A proposal for an EU-wide strategy was orchestrated by Firelogue, including contributions by FIRE-RES, Silvanus, FirEuRisk, and TREEADS. It gaining ground and will be discussed at the FIRE-RES final conference in early November. Only by building resilient landscapes through a mosaic of solutions and policy actions can Europe address the growing threat of extreme wildfire events and ensure the safety of communities and ecosystems.

Author: Jeffrey Moxom (Euromontana)
Contributors: Beatrice Bellavia (Euromontana).