Spain's worst wildfires spread to the southern slopes of the Picos de Europa mountain range on Monday, prompting authorities to close part of the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage route, Reuters."We are facing a fire situation that has not been seen in the last 20 years," Defense Minister Margarita Robles told Cadena SER radio.
The 16-day heatwave is the third-longest on record and reached 45 degrees Celsius over the weekend, Spain's state meteorological agency Aemet said. In a statement on Monday, it warned of"very high or extreme fire risk in most areas" and that the heat would begin to ease from Monday evening or Tuesday morning.
Southern Europe is facing its worst wildfires in two decades, with Spain and Portugal particularly affected, as we reported here. Some 344,400 hectares have burned in Spain so far in 2025, an area the size of the island of Mallorca. This is the highest recorded figure since 2006 and more than four times the average for the period 2006-2024, according to the European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS). In Portugal, around 216,200 hectares have burned so far this year, also more than four times the seasonal average, and two deaths have been reported.
The Spanish army has deployed 3,000 soldiers and 50 aircraft to help firefighters, said Virginia Barcones, the national director of disaster management. France, Italy, the Netherlands, Slovakia, Germany and the Czech Republic are providing or have offered to help Spain through the EU's civil protection mechanism, the Interior Ministry said. Almost 20 forest fires have raged in the regions of Galicia and Castilla-Leon in the past week, forcing authorities to suspend not only rail traffic but also close a 50km section of the Camino de Santiago.
The Camino is an ancient pilgrimage route that starts in France and leads to the city of Santiago de Compostela in western Spain, where the remains of the apostle St. James are believed to lie. Patrice Lepettre, a 75-year-old pilgrim in Astorga, told Reuters that he thought the discomfort for hikers was temporary and could not be compared to the suffering of the locals.
“This is a terrible thing for the population. The pilgrims can go home and come back next year to finish the Camino, but for those who live here, this is a terrible tragedy.”
Regional leaders led by the opposition conservative People's Party (PP) have blamed the central government for poor preparations and have called for more resources to fight the fires. Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez on Sunday called for a national climate agreement with the main political forces, which PP spokeswoman Ester Muñoz rejected on Monday, calling it"herding."
According to the Interior Ministry, 27 people have been arrested since June and 92 are under investigation on suspicion of arson.
