The wave of fires in Spain has united farmers and environmentalists: "The fire goes out in winter with the cleaning of the mountains."

The wave of fires in Spain this August has burned and emptied thousands of hectares. Faced with this situation, representatives of firefighters and forest agents have denounced the "precariousness" ofthe sector , while farmers and environmentalists have called for greater prevention .

Thus, in statements to the Europa Press, the leaders of the UGT and CSIF trade unions have lamented the lack of professionalization and precariousness of fire prevention and suppression operations. In this regard, they have criticised the fact that there is still no autonomous community that has begun to carry out the necessary procedures for the implementation of the Basic Forest Fire Act , signed in November 2024, which offered a transitional period of one year to adapt to it.

In this regard, both Ecologists in Action and SEO/BirdLifehave called for decent working conditions for firefighting groups and have proposed a number of measures to prevent them.  includes a forest mass management model that creates an "agroforestry mosaic" that is possible in "regions where the rural world is still alive."

Greenpeacehas argued that an investment of EUR 1 billion a year could save Spain EUR 95 billion to put out the fire, an amount which, according to the NGO, would manage and save 9.9 million hectares, an area similar to that of Portugal or almost a fifth of Spain.

In the same vein, the Global Nature Foundation has argued that there are a number of increasingly popular practices to prevent fires and restore ecosystems: extensive livestock farming and grazing.

Dry storm season

Cristina Santín , a researcher at the Mixed Institute for Biodiversity Research (IMIB-CSIC), has alluded to the changes in the landscape in Spain and pointed out that although the country is "greener than ever", with climate change it is having "more moments of dryness and heat," which is "a good combination for fires."

To this must be added that Spain is in times of dry storms, electric storms without rain , but lightning is discharged to the ground or trees, as he explained to Europa Press. He also mentioned thehuman factor  because fires can start with accidents or negligence or can be caused directly.

Apart from the natural losses, including the Las Medulas site, which is the Heritage of the Humanities, this wave of fire has also left a number of wounded and killed : for the time being, a 55-year-old man working in a hypica in the Soto de Viñuelas urbanization, in Tres Cantos (Comunidad de Madrid); and two others, 36 and 37 years respectively, who were helping to extinguish the fires in Molezuelas de la Carballeda (Zamora).