Forest fires cause high levels of destruction in Spain during 2015

Forest fires have been highly destructive in Spain during the first seven months of the year, the Minister of Agriculture, Food and the Environment said on Friday.

The announcement comes as a fire in the Sierra del Gato, close to the historic city of Caceres, continues to burn on Saturday after having already destroyed 5,000 hectares and forcing the evacuation of 1,400 people.

This is the latest in a series of fires which in the first seven months of 2015 have burned 52,227 hectares: over twice the 20,947 hectares burned in 2013 and well above the 37,584 hectares affected last year.

2015 has so far seen a total of 6,749 fires, of which 4,688 destroyed at least one hectare. The ministry said that 2,061 burned between 1 and 500 hectares, while seven destroyed 500 hectares or more.

These fires affected a total of 24,129 hectares of open bush and scrubland, 15,313 hectares of woods and forests and 13,114 hectares of pastoral land. A total of 43 percent of the damage was in the northeast of Spain, 37 percent in inland communities and 18 percent along the Mediterranean coastline, with the remainder in other areas.

One major factor has been the hot summer in Spain as it was confirmed earlier in the week by the Spanish Meteorological Agency that July 2015 had been the hottest since the current system of records began in Spain with average temperatures 2.5 degrees Celsius hotter than the norm.

However, 2015 is not the most destructive summer on record for wildfires, given that in 2012, another hot summer, 149,663 hectares of land were affected by fires, while 2009 saw the 81,945 hectares burned.