Fire map in Spain today, August 14: Fog worsens in Seville and Huesca maintains the alert for San Juan de la Peña

Currently, the state legislation on forest fire prevention is, in parliamentary terms, at a stage of basic framework already approved and consolidated, with the main pieces in force and innovations occurring mainly through regulatory development and executive plans. In the search conducted at the national level (General Courts and Government of Spain), there is currently no state bill or proposal in process specifically dedicated to forest fire prevention.

1. Basic rules already approved and in force

• Law 43/2003, on Forests, amended by Law 10/2006 and Law 21/2015 (text in BOE).
  • It is the basic state regulation that organizes the defense against forest fires: it obliges administrations to adopt coordinated measures of prevention, detection, and extinction.
  • It provides for specific prevention programs, based on cause analysis and awareness campaigns, and refers to the Basic Civil Protection Guideline for forest fires.
  • It empowers autonomous communities to regulate risk activities in forests and adjacent areas and to limit transit when the danger is high.
• Royal Decree-Law 15/2022, of August 1, on urgent measures regarding forest fires (BOE-A-2022-12926).
  • It strengthens the Forest Law in the three axes: prevention, extinction, and restoration.
  • It obliges autonomous communities to have prevention, surveillance, and extinction plans for their entire territory, operating year-round with reinforced minimum content.
  • It introduces a minimum state catalog of prohibitions and sanctions when the fire risk is very high or extreme, linked to AEMET information.
• Decree 3769/1972, Regulation of Law 81/1968 on forest fires (BOE-A-1973-208), partially repealed.
  • It remains in force subsidiarily in some aspects and territories, focusing on prevention, extinction, protection of people and property, restoration, and sanctioning regime.
• In civil protection matters, the new Basic Guideline for Civil Protection Planning against the risk of forest fires was approved by Agreement of the Council of Ministers on 04/21/2026 and published by Resolution on 04/23/2026 (BOE-A-2026-9159), replacing and updating the 2013 Guideline.
• Additionally, prevention is supported by other framework laws, such as Law 17/2015, of the National Civil Protection System, and Law 7/2021, on climate change, which incorporate fire risk into emergency planning and climate adaptation.

2. Labor and personnel legislation linked to prevention

• Basic law on forest firefighters (Basic Law project on forest firefighters, initiative 121/000015 – 621/000006).
  • According to the parliamentary record, this law was definitively approved on 10/30/2024 and its text was published as concluded in the Senate on 11/07/2024.
  • It configures the state framework of functions, training, occupational health, and employment regime of extinction personnel and, complementarily, prevention of forest fires.
  • It includes a mandate to approve a specific occupational risk prevention regulation for forest firefighters; its regulatory development is in consultation and public hearing phase in 2025, initiated by the Ministry of Labor.
• Basic law on forest and environmental agents (Law Project 121/000014 – 621/000005).
  • It is also recorded as definitively approved on 10/30/2024 with approved text published on 11/07/2024.
  • It strengthens the role of this group in surveillance, inspection, and support for fire prevention, partially modifying the Forest Law (for example, suppressing or altering some provisions).
• Added to this is Royal Decree-Law 20/2026, of July 29, on urgent labor and social protection measures against forest fires (BOE-A-2026-16543), which does not regulate prevention strictly but establishes extraordinary measures for workers and companies affected by fires involving evacuations or restrictions.

3. Regulatory development and ongoing plans

• Royal Decree 38/2026, of January 21, develops instrumental coordination measures for prevention, surveillance, and extinction of forest fires (BOE-A-2026-1483). It is a regulatory rule already in force, approved by the Government, not subject to ordinary parliamentary processing.
• The Government annually approves a Plan of actions for prevention and fight against forest fires (for example, Council of Ministers agreements of 2025 and 2026), which specifies the means and measures to be deployed each campaign, outside the legislative procedure.
• There are also specific agreements for concrete campaigns (for example, Defense–Xunta de Galicia or Defense–Cabildo de Tenerife in 2026) published in the BOE, which are part of the operational prevention architecture but are not laws nor pass through the Courts.

4. Summary of the “parliamentary status”

In summary, the state legislative core of forest fire prevention (Forest Law and its amendments, RDL 15/2022, basic laws on forest firefighters and forest agents) is already approved and in force. The latest major initiatives specifically related to prevention and fire management (forest firefighters and forest agents) have concluded their parliamentary processing with definitive approval. At the time of the search, there is no new state bill or proposal focused exclusively on forest fire prevention in the General Courts: innovations are mainly occurring through royal decrees, civil protection guidelines, public consultations, and annual plans approved by the Government.

All this has been analyzed at the national level (Government of Spain and General Courts). If you are interested in the status of regulations or plans in a specific autonomous community, the regional legislation on forests, civil protection, and fire prevention of that territory should also be reviewed.

The State Meteorological Agency (AEMET) is not a firefighting body, but it has a key and legally defined role in prevention and emergency management for forest fires, focused on meteorological information, risk assessment, and support for coordination among administrations.

1. General framework of AEMET's competencies

Royal Decree 186/2008, which approves AEMET's Statute, sets its mission as the national meteorological service: to provide meteorological services under State competence and support public policies, “contributing to the safety of people and property” and prioritizing institutions competent in civil protection, defense, and security (arts. 1 and 4). It recognizes AEMET as the State meteorological authority and the responsibility to manage the public meteorology service, including observation networks and telecommunication systems.

Although the Statute does not speak only of fires, its specific functions in this area are built on this basis in the regulations on civil protection, forests, and forest fires.

2. Functions in fire planning and prevention

The Basic Guideline for Civil Protection Emergency Planning for Forest Fires, approved by Royal Decree 893/2013 (partially amended by the 2023 Basic Civil Protection Standard), expressly defines the:

• Meteorological Information System for estimating forest fire danger, as “the set of actions and activities carried out by AEMET to have meteorological hazard indices” and their transmission nationally and to autonomous communities.
• The use of meteorological hazard maps prepared by AEMET as an instrument for risk forecasting and plan activation.

The State Civil Protection Plan for Forest Fire Emergencies, approved by Resolution of October 31, 2014 (BOE-A-2014-11493), specifies these functions:

• AEMET prepares daily for the entire national territory a forecast of meteorological variables (temperature, humidity, wind, precipitation) necessary to calculate a meteorological index of forest fire danger.
• This information is provided in numerical and cartographic format to the management bodies of regional plans and the State Plan itself.
• AEMET, through its operational units, provides real-time support to extinction tasks, supplying specific and updated forecasts during fires.

Additionally, the Plan foresees that AEMET is represented in state coordination bodies (State Coordination Committee, CECO) and can be integrated into advisory committees, providing meteorological technical criteria in the planning and review phase of plans.

3. Competencies in operational emergency management

In the emergency phase, the same State Plan assigns AEMET the responsibility to:

• Continuously prepare and disseminate the meteorological hazard forecast for forest fires as the basis for declaring phases and situations.
• Feed the coordinated alert and information system on ongoing fires, so that state and regional resources can be mobilized effectively and prioritized.
• Provide information directed to competent civil protection bodies, both state and regional.

That is, AEMET is the reference actor for operational meteorological information used to decide preventive restrictions, raise emergency levels, request state resources, or declare a national interest emergency.

4. Strengthened obligations after Royal Decree-Law 15/2022

Royal Decree-Law 15/2022, on urgent measures regarding forest fires (BOE-A-2022-12926) strengthens AEMET's role by amending the Forest Law. Among other aspects, it establishes that:

• AEMET must keep updated and available for autonomous communities the information on very high or extreme fire risk, to which certain prohibitions and activity limitations in the natural environment are linked.
• In the new article 48 bis, AEMET is obliged to publish on its internet portal and keep permanently updated the forecast of meteorological risk levels for forest fires, with georeferenced information, and to collaborate with autonomous communities in its use.

Thus, AEMET's risk forecast becomes a direct normative reference to activate preventive restrictions and organize surveillance and extinction devices.

5. Integration into the National Civil Protection System

Law 17/2015, of the National Civil Protection System (BOE-A-2015-7730) regulates special plans for forest fires as one of the major risks to plan for. Within this framework:

• AEMET acts as a reference technical service for adverse meteorological phenomena, providing essential information to state and regional plans.
• It participates in the structure of the National Civil Protection System as a specialized body that supports emergency management with data and forecasts.

In summary, AEMET's competencies in fires focus on three main axes: risk prediction and assessment (indices and maps), continuous meteorological support to management and extinction, and participation in civil protection coordination bodies, with a reinforced role after recent reforms.

For a municipality to access state aid for damages caused by forest fires, it is not enough that it has suffered the fire: a series of legal and procedural requirements must be met, mainly defined in Law 17/2015, of July 9, of the National Civil Protection System, and in the applicable subsidy regulations, such as Order HAP/196/2015, of January 21, which establishes regulatory bases for aid to local infrastructures after natural disasters. Additionally, in many cases, royal decree-laws and specific orders are approved for each episode (specific fires, summer campaigns, etc.).

1. Declaration of an area seriously affected by a civil protection emergency

Law 17/2015 foresees that, to activate the “full package” of state measures, the Government declares a “zone seriously affected by a civil protection emergency” (formerly called “catastrophic zones”). The basic requirements are:

• The declaration is made by Agreement of the Council of Ministers, at the joint proposal of the Ministry of the Interior and the Ministry of Finance (and, if applicable, other departments).
• There must be a disaster that has caused personal or material damage that seriously disrupts the living conditions of the population in a specific area, or that has caused the paralysis of essential public services. Large forest fires typically fit this scenario.
• The agreement must delimit the territorial scope (affected municipalities or population centers). This delimitation is usually made at the proposal of autonomous communities and Government delegations.
• Interested public administrations (autonomous communities, provincial councils, municipalities) can request the declaration, providing damage information.

Although the law allows granting aid even without a formal declaration of a seriously affected zone, in practice the broader and more systematic aid to local entities is usually linked to such declaration and to a specific royal decree-law or agreement detailing the measures.

2. Types of aid to local entities for fires

Once the zone is declared affected, Law 17/2015 and the development regulations contemplate, among others, the following measures with direct impact on municipalities:

• Compensation to local corporations for expenses of urgent actions (extinction, evacuation, urgent cleaning, etc.).
• Subsidies for damages to municipal infrastructures, equipment, installations, and services of local ownership, as well as road networks of provincial councils, island councils, etc.
• Tax benefits (for example, in property tax or economic activities tax) whose compensation to the municipality is regulated by specific resolutions.

3. Specific requirements to access subsidies

Order HAP/196/2015, which sets regulatory bases for repair works of municipal infrastructures after natural disasters, illustrates the requirements usually demanded (and later replicated or adapted in more recent orders):

• Affected territorial scope: only projects from municipalities and population centers included in the Ministry of the Interior orders specifying which entities have been affected by the disaster (in this case, fires) can be financed.
• Beneficiary condition: formally, subsidies are granted to provincial councils, island councils, insular councils, or single-province autonomous communities, which act as direct beneficiary entities. However, projects must refer to municipal ownership infrastructures and services, so the municipality appears as the executing or final recipient entity.
• Causal relationship with the fire: it is mandatory to prove the direct link between the forest fire and the damages whose repair is financed (projects, technical reports, photographs, records, etc.).
• Ownership and competence: it is required to prove that the damaged asset is of municipal ownership and that the municipality is competent over the affected service.
• Availability of co-financing: it is usually required to prove budget availability or commitment to finance the part of the work not covered by the subsidy. The bases set a maximum percentage of state financing and establish that the sum of public aids cannot exceed the total cost.
• General subsidy requirements: being up to date with tax and Social Security obligations, not being subject to prohibitions under article 13 of the General Subsidies Law, and complying with public procurement regulations.

4. Procedure, justification, and control

Specific calls (usually by ministerial order) detail deadlines, forms, and documentation. Generally, municipalities, through their provincial council or equivalent entity:

• Submit applications with damage report, budget, and priority of works.
• Receive a resolution of maximum subsidy allocation per project.
• Must award the works within a determined period and send award certification.
• Upon completion, submit a technical and economic justification (work certificates, payments made, reception act).
• Controls and possible reductions or reimbursements are foreseen if the aid's purpose or execution and justification deadlines are not met.

In summary, for a municipality to access state aid for forest fires it is key: that the territory is officially recognized as a seriously affected zone or included in the scope of a specific aid regulation; that projects conform to the purpose of repairing damages derived from the fire; and that the municipality meets the general subsidy requirements regarding co-financing, execution, justification, and administrative legality.