Fires in Spain today, August 14: Fog worsens in Aznalcóllar and the fire in Huesca threatens San Juan de la Peña

In Spain, there is no single state-level legal definition of when a forest fire is considered “stabilized” or “controlled”. The basic civil protection legislation sets the framework and requires special plans against the risk of forest fires, but leaves autonomous communities a wide margin to specify the operational situations and technical criteria to move from one phase to another, including the moments when a fire is declared stabilized or controlled.

1. Basic state framework

The general legal basis is in Law 17/2015, of the National Civil Protection System, which requires the approval of special civil protection plans against forest fires and coordination among different levels (state, regional, and local). The law explicitly mentions forest fires as one of the risks to be addressed through these special plans, but does not define what a stabilized or controlled fire is, nor does it set specific technical thresholds.

Based on this, the Basic Guideline for Civil Protection Emergency Planning for Forest Fires was approved through Royal Decree 893/2013 (text in BOE). The Guideline:

• Defines the minimum planning structure (state plan, regional plans, local plans, and self-protection plans).
• Requires plans to include “emergency operational situations”, with their criteria and response procedures.
• However, it does not impose a fixed terminology nor a uniform definition of “stabilized” or “controlled.”

The State Civil Protection Plan for Forest Fire Emergencies, approved by Resolution of October 31, 2014 (State Plan), relies on this Guideline and organizes the response when national interest is involved, but also does not set a detailed legal definition of these two labels. It practically refers to how operational situations are configured in regional plans.

2. Margin of autonomous communities

According to Law 17/2015 and the Basic Guideline, autonomous communities must:

• Approve their own special emergency plan for forest fires.
• Define in it the classification of fires, severity levels, and emergency situations or phases.
• Specify the command organization (technical direction of extinction, civil protection plan direction, etc.) and who declares each change of situation.

This means that the specific requirements to speak of a “stabilized” or “controlled” fire are largely regional and not identical throughout the territory, although the underlying technical logic is similar.

3. Example: Andalusia (INFOCA Plan)

A clear example is the Andalusia Forest Fire Emergency Plan, approved by Decree 371/2010, of September 14 (BOJA). This plan explicitly defines:

• Controlled fire: “Fire in which the entire perimeter is surrounded by a control line, formed by a strip of land without vegetation or with already burned vegetation, although some ignition points may remain inside.”
• Extinguished fire: fire in which there are no materials igniting within its perimeter and reproduction of the fire is not possible.

The plan itself identifies the Technical Direction of Extinction as the person responsible for extinction and as the technical authority who, within the command structure, assesses the fire situation. In practice, the transition to “controlled fire” is decided when, according to that technical direction, the perimeter has been closed with effective control lines and no significant spread is expected, although embers or hot spots may remain inside.

4. About the concept of “stabilized fire”

In the consulted state documentation (Law 17/2015, Basic Guideline on forest fires, and State Plan) there is no specific legal definition of “stabilized fire.” This term is usually used more in operational practice and public communication than in strict definitions of basic regulations.

Some communities incorporate the “stabilized” situation in their special plans or internal technical protocols as an intermediate phase between active and controlled fire, but:

• The terminology and specific criteria are not unified at the state level.
• They are technical definitions that depend on how each regional service describes fire behavior and the effectiveness of the extinction device.

5. Who declares each situation

The analyzed texts show a common pattern:

• The daily assessment of the fire situation corresponds to the Technical Direction of Extinction (operational leadership of the device), which has specific training on fire behavior.
• The Civil Protection Plan Direction (competent civil protection authority) relies on that technical assessment to formally declare phase changes of the plan (for example, activation or deactivation of levels, evacuations, etc.).

Consequently, the legal requirements to declare a fire “stabilized” or “controlled” are mainly those included in the regional special plans and the Basic Guideline requires them to define; the State does not impose a uniform numerical definition. The common element is that the decision rests with the technical authority of extinction, integrated into the official civil protection structure of each autonomous community.

The Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge (MITECO) does not ordinarily direct forest fires—that competence belongs to the autonomous communities—but it plays a key role in state support, technical coordination, and deployment of its own resources in large fires. These functions are supported by Law 43/2003, on Forests, Law 17/2015, of the National Civil Protection System, the State Civil Protection Plan for Forest Fire Emergencies, and the basic state guideline, now integrated into the new Basic Civil Protection Standard.

1. Basic competence framework: the State supports, the Autonomous Communities lead

According to the Forest Law, autonomous communities have general competence in forest management, prevention, and extinction. Article 7.c) of Law 43/2003, cited in Order TED/676/2025, assigns to the General State Administration, through MITECO, the deployment of state support resources to autonomous communities for forest fire coverage.

The same order recalls that MITECO is responsible for providing forest fire defense services, which are considered essential community services, reinforcing its role in major emergencies despite ordinary direction remaining regional.

2. Technical competences within MITECO

The current organizational structure, developed by Royal Decree 503/2024 (cited in Order TED/676/2025), assigns to the Directorate General of Biodiversity, Forests, and Desertification the:

• Basic coordination of forest fire fighting activities.
• Organization and support to autonomous communities with aerial extinction resources contracted by the ministry.
• Management of the state device (brigades, aerial resources, analysis units) and associated contracting.

The Forest Law also reinforces the state function of setting common guidelines on training, standardization of resources, and deployment of state support resources to autonomous communities, as reflected in the excerpts of that law consulted.

3. MITECO’s own resources for large fires

From the regulations and official MITECO notes, the ministry manages a broad state forest fire defense device, which always acts in support of the autonomous communities:

• Forest Fire Reinforcement Brigades (BRIF), state forest firefighters who intervene in most large fires. MITECO indicates that its brigades act in around 70% of large fires and its aerial resources in 85% (note from 04/23/2025).
• State aerial resources (helicopters and amphibious planes): MITECO owns the Canadair fleet and other planes/seaplanes; Defense, through the 43 Group, operates them by interdepartmental agreement (note from 06/20/2024).
• Technical support units: Mobile Analysis and Planning Units (UMAP), Integral Prevention Teams (EPRIF), Preventive Work Brigades (BLP), and the National Forest Fire Information Coordination Center (CCINIF), which mobilizes and coordinates these resources.

In practice, this translates into contracts for helicopters and other aerial support resources for the autonomous communities (such as services operated by Avincis detailed in Order TED/676/2025), whose operation is guaranteed even in case of strike due to their essential nature.

4. Role in the National Civil Protection System and the State Plan

The State Civil Protection Plan for Forest Fire Emergencies, approved by Council of Ministers Agreement (Resolution of 10/31/2014, BOE-A-2014-11493), integrates MITECO as a central piece of the state complementary device to regional plans.

In major summer campaigns, the Interior Ministry chairs the State Coordination and Direction Committee (CECOD), but MITECO participates as a permanent member. An Interior note from 2026 explains that the state device includes:

• BRIF, UMAP, EPRIF, and BLP of MITECO.
• The ministry’s fleet of helicopters, planes, and seaplanes (31 helicopters and 25 planes/seaplanes in the 2026 campaign, according to Interior, 05/21/2026).
• The Military Emergency Unit (UME) and other state bodies, coordinated from Interior but operating alongside MITECO’s resources.

When a national interest emergency (operational situation 3) is declared, Law 17/2015 and the State Plan assign superior direction to the Ministry of the Interior. Nevertheless, MITECO maintains its function of providing state resources, forest technical advice, and fire analysis, integrated into the state command structure.

5. Prevention, training, and international cooperation

Beyond extinction, the Forest Law and administrative practice assign MITECO functions of:

• Preventive planning and coordination (national hydrological-forest restoration plans, prevention campaigns, equipment standardization, and common training).
• Joint preparation programs with autonomous communities, through drills and exercises (National Forest Fire Preparedness Program, described in MITECO’s note of 04/10/2024).
• International support by sending BRIF and aerial resources to other countries within the EU Civil Protection Mechanism or bilateral agreements, as several MITECO notes show (for example, support to Bulgaria or other Mediterranean states).

In summary, MITECO is the forest and technical arm of the State against large fires: it sets common guidelines, organizes and finances a powerful device of brigades and aerial resources, and makes it available to autonomous communities and the National Civil Protection System, while Interior assumes operational direction when the emergency reaches national interest.

In recent years, Spain has become one of the European countries with the most large forest fires (those exceeding 500 hectares). With the available official and European data, at least 140 large fires can be documented between 2023 and the current part of 2026, and all indications are that 2025 and 2026 are exceptionally severe years. Compared to other southern European countries, Spain consistently ranks near the top of the European table, and in 2026 it becomes the EU country with the most burned area according to environmental organizations and Copernicus/EFFIS data.

Number of large forest fires in Spain

There is no closed series of “large forest fires” (LFF, >500 ha) for each of the last five years in the consulted documents, but there are official figures for 2023, 2024, 2025, and almost complete data for 2026:

• 2023 – The Ministry of the Interior, in the 2023 fire campaign report, notes it was a year “characterized by the prominence of large forest fires,” with a total of 19 large fires (over 500 ha). This information appears in the press release “The Government advances the state campaign against forest fires for the second consecutive year” from May 2024 (Interior note).
• 2024 – In the monitoring report published by Interior in September 2024, it is indicated that, until then, “only 17 have been large forest fires,” within more than 5,800 total fires and 48,550 hectares affected, a figure well below the decade average (2024 report).
• 2025 – According to Interior, 2025 is the worst year of the decade: 61 large forest fires were recorded until September 30, with 348,349 hectares burned, almost four times the average of the last decade (Interior note from 09/30/2025). Greenpeace summarizes these data indicating that LFFs tripled compared to the average (63 versus about 18 usual) and that each large fire burned on average about 6,100 hectares (Greenpeace, 06/01/2026).
• 2026 (as of August 11) – The Vice President and Minister for the Ecological Transition, Sara Aagesen, reports 43 large forest fires recorded until August 11. With EFFIS-Copernicus data, it is also mentioned that 222,783 hectares were burned until August 5, almost five times more than on the same date in 2025 (report in Demócrata).

Adding only the years for which concrete data exist (2023, 2024, 2025, and 2026 until August) yields a minimum of 140 large forest fires in Spain. The reviewed documents do not include a closed figure for 2022, although both environmental organizations and the Government itself recall that 2022 was one of the worst recent years in burned area, suggesting that the total for the last five years would be clearly higher than those 140 LFFs.

Comparison with other European countries

Regarding the European comparison, the available data refer more to burned area and total number of fires than specifically to LFFs, but they allow placing Spain in context:

• The Ministry of the Interior recalls, citing EFFIS, that in 2023 Spain ranked third in the EU in affected forest area, only behind Greece and Italy (Interior note 05/08/2024).
• In 2025, reports from WWF, Greenpeace, and Copernicus data indicate that Spain reached record figures of burned area (around 350,000–380,000 hectares, according to various EFFIS updates), ranking among the most affected countries on the continent.
• In 2026, Greenpeace highlights that the 172,396 hectares burned so far this summer and the 35 LFFs counted then make Spain the European country with the largest burned area (statement from 07/29/2026).
• The European office of the WHO, referring to the summer of 2026, notes that Portugal and Spain have registered an increase of more than 100% in reported forest fires compared to the same period in 2025, confirming that the Iberian Peninsula is one of the main fire hotspots in Europe.

Comparable EFFIS tables with the annual number of LFFs >500 ha broken down for Spain, Portugal, France, Italy, and Greece for each of the last five years have not been found, so strict numerical comparison by country is incomplete. However, burned area data and references from the European Commission, WHO, and NGOs coincide in a clear pattern: Spain has consistently ranked among the most affected European countries by large fires, along with Greece, Italy, and to a lesser extent Portugal and France, and in 2026 it leads the list in burned forest area in the EU.