Damages mount as Spain battles massive wildfires

(CN) — Massive forest fires in Spain and Portugal continued to burn on Friday, adding more destruction to what has become the EU’s worst fire season in recent memory.

Firefighters battled large blazes in the mountains and hills of northwestern Spain and central Portugal. In Spain, the worst fires were in the regions of Castile and León, Galicia and Extremadura.

Calmer winds and cooler temperatures dampened the blazes, which have charred about 1,556 square miles over the past two weeks and left the Iberian Peninsula in shock as it reels from the dangers posed by a hotter climate.

Across the EU, an area roughly the size of Connecticut — or about 3,919 square miles — has burned this year, making it the worst year in more than two decades, according to data from the European Forest Fire Information System. Its data goes back to 2003.

Europe has been hit by record-breaking heat waves this summer, making conditions even more favorable for the outbreak of fires.

Inside the EU, fires have blackened large areas of France, Italy, Romania, Bulgaria, Greece and Cyprus. Meanwhile, outside the bloc, major fires devoured swaths of Montenegro, Albania and Turkey.

In Spain and Portugal, the fires have been linked to at least eight deaths and caused more than 33,000 people to evacuate their homes. The fires have damaged or destroyed numerous homes.

Spain mobilized thousands of soldiers to help fight the blazes and more than 330 firefighters from other EU countries were also in Spain and Portugal to extinguish the flames.

By Friday, initial damage estimates indicated huge agricultural losses as the fires ravaged farms, vineyards, olive groves and fruit orchards.

“The situation is catastrophic,” said Javier Fatás, an official with COAG, an organization that represents Spanish farmers.

The group estimated the fires caused more than $700 million in damages to livestock, timber, crops and other agricultural enterprises.

Agroseguro, a Spanish consortium of agricultural insurers, estimated 73 square miles of agricultural area had been destroyed. It said poultry farmers suffered the biggest losses.

Beekeepers were another group particularly hard hit. Spain is the EU’s top honey producer.

COAG officials reported that more than 7,000 beehives were destroyed by the fires and that beekeeping would not recover for at least five years in places ruined by the fires.

“Without forests, there is no beekeeping, and León’s forests have suffered a massive blow in recent days,” the group said in a recent statement.

This year’s fires exposed Spain’s vulnerability to climate change and came as a new shock following last November’s catastrophic flooding that killed more than 200 people in towns and villages near Valencia. Scientists said climate change played a big role in unleashing deadly torrential rains during a severe cold snap.

Amid the devastating fires, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez is pushing to make Spain more prepared for climate change by passing a national pact to “deal with the climate emergency.”

During a visit to the disaster zone on Sunday, Sánchez said he wanted to get scientists, businesses, trade unions and all levels of government to work together on developing strategies to best deal with climate change.

“If the climate emergency worsens year after year, what we have to do is to transcend legislatures and turn climate emergency policies into Spanish state policies,” he said.

Courthouse News reporter Cain Burdeau is based in the European Union.

Follow @cainburdeau