SPAIN’s Prime Minister, Pedro Sanchez, has announced a nationwide anti-wildfire campaign amid a hot spell that could see temperatures soar to a scorching 38C in parts of the country.
The left-wing PSOE leader said the government would roll out ‘its largest state operation’ this summer, involving forest firefighting brigades, emergency teams and more than 20 new military aircraft.
“Fires do not distinguish between governments, do not ask who is in power, and do not care about political affiliations,” Sanchez said during a state visit to Torrejon de Ardoz air base, near Madrid, on Thursday.
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“For precisely that reason, Spain needs a broad national agreement to confront the climate emergency,” he added.
It comes only days after the national weather agency, AEMET, warned temperatures could reach an unseasonably high 36-38C in southern Spain this weekend, with the hot spell possibly lasting until the middle of next week.
A two-year-old girl died from heatstroke in the Galician town of Brión after she was accidentally left in her father’s car for several hours on Wednesday, as temperatures in the region neared 29C.
Last year marked Spain’s worst year in three decades for wildfire damage, with nearly 350,000 hectares of land burned amid temperatures exceeding 40C in parts of the country.
The catastrophe prompted the government to declare 114 disaster areas across Spain after at least eight people died in the wildfires, according to data from Proteccion Civil.
Spain has suffered a growing number of heatwaves and major forest fires in recent years.
In 2026, the country experienced its hottest April since records began in 1961, with temperatures climbing to 33C in Seville and Tenerife.
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