Europe faces the second half of August under extraordinary pressure from wildfires. The President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, warned this Saturday that the continent remains at a high alert level for wildfires, a term referred to in Spanish as "alerta máxima," due to the simultaneity of large fires in different European countries.
Spain occupies one of the main focal points of attention. The wildfire in Las Peñas de Riglos, in Huesca, remains active this Sunday, August 16, and has temporarily affected about 16,600 hectares. After a more favorable night, the operation now faces a decisive day with an even greater deployment than in recent days.
The figures of the operation have increased compared to those initially reported. Around a thousand personnel and between 35 and 40 aerial resources will be available this Sunday, to which will be added the international collaboration from France.
Riglos faces a key day with a historic deployment
The Aragonese fire has become one of the largest extinguishing operations deployed in the community. INFOAR, the Military Emergency Unit, the Ministry for Ecological Transition, provincial and municipal firefighters, and teams from numerous autonomous communities are working together to contain a perimeter of enormous dimensions.
The operation will have this Sunday with personnel deployed from Catalonia, Navarra, La Rioja, Valencia Community, Castile and León, Murcia, Castile-La Mancha, and Madrid. France also plans to incorporate about 100 firefighters, along with a Super Puma helicopter and other support resources.
The UME maintains four deployed sections, while the operation includes ground and helicopter-borne brigades, fire engines, bulldozers, helicopters, and extinguishing planes.
The reinforcement comes after a night in which, for the first time in several days, the drop in temperatures and the increase in humidity have allowed progress in containing the fire. The teams have managed to prevent the flames from advancing in some of the sectors that were most concerning during the night.
More than a thousand people affected by evacuations
The dimension of the fire is also reflected in the evacuations. Nineteen nuclei remain evacuated and 1,046 people have been affected, although only a part of them continues to be housed in the resources provided by the administrations because many evacuees are staying with family or friends.
The situation continues to affect communications in the province. Several roads remain closed and conventional rail traffic between Sabiñánigo and Ayerbe remains suspended.
One of the points that has generated the most concern during the evolution of the fire has been the surroundings of San Juan de la Peña, a site of enormous historical importance for Aragón. The proximity of the flames led to the preventive relocation of skeletal remains and other cultural goods from the Old Monastery to the Museum of Huesca.
This Sunday, the area located between Bernués and San Juan de la Peña continues to be among the sectors that concentrate the attention of the device, along the right flank of the fire.
One more favorable night, but the fire remains active
The meteorological improvement offers some margin to the teams, although the fire still cannot be considered stabilized.
During the early morning, the advance of the flames has been contained and different points of the perimeter have been consolidated. In addition, the absence of thermal inversion allows aerial resources to join the extinction tasks earlier in the morning.
The scenario, however, remains delicate. The 16,600 hectares counted are still a provisional estimate and the enormous perimeter requires monitoring for possible reproductions and changes in the behavior of the fire.
Niebla improves after exceeding 38,000 hectares
The situation is more favorable in Niebla (Huelva), where the fire has already covered more than 38,000 hectares after more than a week of extinction work.
For the first time since the start of the emergency, the fire has stopped expanding for a prolonged period and the favorable evolution has allowed the authorization of new returns of neighbors who remained evacuated.
To the 114 returns previously authorized, another 154 neighbors have been added, coming from areas of Huelva and Sevilla, after the operational managers considered that the fire had ceased to pose an immediate threat in a good part of its fronts.
The surveillance continues, especially over the hot spots and in those areas where there is unburned vegetation inside or near the perimeter. More than a thousand personnel and hundreds of material resources have participated in the Niebla operation, one of the most serious fires recorded this summer in Spain.
The evacuees from the La Tejera fire have been able to return
The situation has also improved in La Tejera, in the Zamoran municipality of Hermisende, near the border with Portugal.
The fire forced the preventive evacuation of about 190 people from Castromil and San Ciprián de Hermisende this Saturday, after the evolution of the flames led to an initial increase in the severity level.
However, the work done during the day allowed the fire to be later reduced to IGR-1 and authorized the return to their homes of the 190 evacuated neighbors.
The emergency services maintain surveillance in Sanabria, where other fires were recorded on Saturday and where storms could cause rapid changes in the extinguishing conditions.
France, Germany, Greece, and Serbia are also fighting large fires
The Spanish emergency is part of a much broader scenario. In the southwest of France, a fire in the department of Les Landes had affected about 1,580 hectares this Saturday and forced new evacuations in the surroundings of Luglon. About 550 firefighters were involved in the efforts.
In Germany, a large fire in the Eifel region has forced the evacuation of at least 1,800 people in Hürtgenwald, with around 1,400 firefighters mobilized. The German authorities have also received requests for help to collaborate with Belgium in response to another fire located near the border.
Greece has also faced dozens of agricultural and forest fires in just 24 hours, while in Serbia the authorities counted 25 active fires, including one that had covered about 25 square kilometers in the Deliblatska National Park.
It is this simultaneous scenario that has led Von der Leyen to warn that the pressure is increasing especially in the eastern European countries. Copernicus is providing mapping for fire-related operations in Spain, Albania, Greece, France, Germany, and Serbia.
The EU has 22 planes and five helicopters
Europe faces this campaign with the largest preventive fire-fighting device organized so far by the European Union.
For the summer of 2026, the available European fleet through rescEU and the European Civil Protection Mechanism has 22 firefighting planes and five helicopters ready to support countries overwhelmed by fires.
In addition, there is the preventive deployment of 777 firefighters from 14 European countries in areas considered high risk in Cyprus, Greece, Italy, France, Spain, and Portugal. This is the highest level of participation since this pre-positioning system began operating in 2022.
The goal is for reinforcements to be close to the regions where there is a higher risk, thus reducing the time needed to respond when a state requests international assistance.
Heat and drought raise the risk in Europe
Behind this pressure, there is also a particularly unfavorable weather scenario.
The Joint Research Centre of the European Commission (JRC) warned this week that the combination of scarce precipitation and successive heat waves is worsening the drought in much of the continent.
European data shows that drought conditions worsened during July and August and that the area burned in the European Union by August 5, 2026, was already above that recorded on the same dates in 2025, a year that ended up marking a record area affected by fires in the EU.
The simultaneity of large fires is precisely one of the problems that generates the most tension on emergency systems: when several countries suffer severe fires at the same time, national and European resources have to be shared among numerous operations.
Huesca concentrates all eyes this Sunday
In Spain, the main battle continues this Sunday in Aragón.
The night has given the operation a first opportunity, but Las Peñas de Riglos remains active, affecting about 16,600 hectares and necessitating one of the largest fire-fighting deployments made in Aragón.
The incorporation of new Spanish and French teams will raise the device to approximately a thousand personnel and up to 40 aerial means. The immediate objective is to take advantage of the more favorable weather conditions to consolidate the perimeter before a new increase in temperatures and a reduction in humidity can complicate the work again in the coming days.
While Niebla begins to show clear signs of improvement and the evacuees from La Tejera have been able to return to their homes, Riglos continues to be the main open front in Spain within a crisis of fires that this weekend affects a good part of the European continent.