Wildfires surge 62% in Catalonia in 2025 

The 2025 wildfire season in Catalonia has concluded with 1,333 more fires than last year, a 62.6% increase.

In total, there were 2,168 wildfires, including 338 forest fires, according to Catalan interior minister, Núria Parlon, who presented the official season report on Thursday.

"This season saw three critical episodes," said Parlon.

The two largest blazes occurred in early July. A fire in Torrefeta i Florejacs, Segarra, western Catalonia burned 5,056 hectares, and one in Paüls, Baix Ebre county, southern Catalonia, destroyed 2,391 hectares.

A third critical incident took place on June 21 and 22, when 98 fires were burning simultaneously across Catalonia.

Parlon warned of a "new risk paradigm" in fire management, brought about by climate change, with faster-moving and less predictable fires.

Inspector Francesc Boya of the Bombers (Catalan fire service) added that fire prediction tools must improve to adapt to these changing conditions.

Over 2,100 fires and more than 8,600 hectares burned

This summer, firefighters responded to 2,168 fires involving vegetation, which affected 8,615.80 hectares, including 4,595.94 hectares of non-forested land and 4,019.86 hectares of forested land.

The blazes in Torrefeta i Florejacs and Paüls accounted for 86.44% of the total burned area. 

Catalonia's Rural Agents activated Level 4 of the Alfa Plan – the highest alert for wildfire risk – on seven occasions, and access to nine natural areas was restricted due to extreme danger.

The Torrefeta i Florejacs fire was described as "highly aggressive," spreading at 24 km/h and generating a 14-kilometer-high pyrocumulus cloud.

Inspector Boya noted the extreme difficulty in controlling such fires, which can exceed current suppression capabilities.

He stressed the need to refine meteorological forecasting models, saying, "We must advance technologically to detect these situations with greater accuracy."

Causes of the fires

Investigations by the Rural Agents revealed that 14% of the fires this summer were caused by natural events, namely lightning strikes. The remaining 86% were related to human activity: negligence (26%), accidents (26%), intentional acts (16%), and other causes (18%).

Climate emergency

Parlon reiterated that this summer clearly reflects a "new risk paradigm" in wildfires, largely driven by the climate emergency.

Although rainfall earlier in the year initially appeared to offer some relief, Parlon warned that climate change has increased vegetation stress, making it more flammable and vulnerable to fires.

The rain spurred the growth of shrubs and grasses, which dried out in the summer heat and became highly flammable, fueling the rapid spread of wildfires.

She emphasized the importance of land management as a key fire prevention strategy and cautioned that fire prevention efforts must continue, even though the official fire season has ended.

Individual under investigation

An individual is under investigation for allegedly dumping ashes in an agricultural area, which may have caused the wildfire in Paüls in July. 

"There is a person who has been reported for a suspected act of negligence, and we believe they were responsible for starting the fire," Antoni Mur, Chief Inspector of the Catalan Rural Agents said on Thursday.

He indicated that the fire is believed to have originated from ashes being improperly discarded in a rural area.

Photos, podcast

See here for striking images of the destruction caused by the Paüls wildfire.

To learn more about Catalonia’s wildfire strategy, the history of its firefighters, and how they prepare to tackle fires, listen to the podcast below.