A wildfire in Ávila province, central Spain, has burnt around 50,000 hectares and become the largest ever recorded in the country, the Spanish Government has said.
Sara Aagesen, third deputy prime minister and ecological transition minister, gave the figure on July 26, 2026 from the forward command post at Navalcarnero, west of Madrid. The blaze broke out at Burgohondo on July 22 and has since swept through the Alberche and Tiétar valleys.
It has overtaken the August 2025 fire at Larouco, Quiroga and Oencia in northwest Spain, which destroyed 37,765 hectares. A fire at La Mierla in Guadalajara province, which started on July 16, now ranks second at about 32,000 hectares.
Taken together with blazes in the western sierra of the Madrid region and in Toledo province, the flames have covered more than 77,000 hectares along a joint perimeter of 280 kilometres. Authorities are managing the three fronts as a single incident.
Some 89,763 people have been affected, of whom 59,896 have been evacuated and 29,867 confined to their homes. Thirty-nine municipalities have been cleared and seven more confined, according to the interior ministry.
The Military Emergency Unit reported an overnight improvement and described the perimeter as largely contained, though several active heads remain. Aagesen called the situation complex and said residents would only be allowed home once conditions were completely safe.
The Civil Guard has arrested one person and placed a second under investigation over the origin of the fire. Its nature protection service found the blaze began with a spark from heavy machinery used where such work was banned.
Alfonso Fernández Mañueco, president of the Castilla y León regional government, said the region would join the criminal case as a private prosecutor. “This fire was caused by an act of negligence,” he said at Navaluenga, in Ávila province.
Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said the cabinet would approve a decree declaring the affected municipalities disaster zones. He was due to travel on July 27 to Castellón province, eastern Spain, where a separate fire is burning.
That blaze, which started at Vall d’Uixó on July 25, has destroyed about 6,500 hectares along a 48-kilometre perimeter and forced more than 16,000 people out of 15 municipalities. Juanfran Pérez Llorca, the Valencian regional president, said it remained out of control.
Spain activated the EU Civil Protection Mechanism on July 24 and asked for four aerial firefighting assets. Greece has sent two Canadair CL-415 amphibious aircraft, while crews from Italy and Portugal are also on the ground.
Aagesen said 153,000 hectares had burnt across Spain since the start of 2026, six times the area recorded over the same period last year. Her ministry has counted 32 large fires.
