The deadly forest fires ravaging Spain have burned an area equivalent to almost half a million football fields this year, setting a new record.

This is according to data from the European Forest Fire Information System (Effis), reported by AFP.

So far, fires in 2025 have burned over 343,000 hectares, surpassing the previous record for this period of 306,000 hectares, set in 2022.

Portugal set the European record with 563,000 hectares burned in 2017, when 119 people died. According to Effis, which has been collecting data for two decades, 216,000 hectares have already burned in the country in 2025.

This year's fires in Spain have been concentrated in the northwestern regions of Galicia and Castile and León and have claimed the lives of four people. | BGNES