The wildfire that swept through the province of Ávila, northwest of Madrid in the region of Castilla y León, has officially become the largest recorded in Spain’s modern history, after burning an estimated 50,000 hectares, according to the government.
The blaze means that the country’s three biggest wildfires since records began in 1961 have all taken place within the past two years, based on the latest figures from the General Statistics on Forest Fires (EGIF). ALSO READ: Study finds climate change made Spain’s wildfires 40 times more likely.
Burgohondo, Ávila (July 2026)
The Burgohondo wildfire is now regarded as Spain’s largest modern wildfire, with around 50,000 hectares destroyed.
On Tuesday 28 July authorities lifted evacuation orders affecting more than a dozen towns in the Madrid and Ávila regions, allowing thousands of residents to return home after being displaced by the fires. ALSO READ: ‘Light at the end of the tunnel’ as Spain starts lifting wildfire evacuation orders.
Although the evacuation orders have been lifted, firefighters remained on the ground continuing containment operations after the week-long blaze devastated a vast swathe of countryside.
Larouco, Ourense (August 2025)
A wildfire that started on 13 August 2025, in Larouco, in the northwestern province of Ourense,(Galicia), scorched 37,765 hectares of forest, according to 2025 data published by the Ministry for the Ecological Transition (Miteco).
The blaze formed part of a particularly destructive wildfire season in which almost 400,000 hectares were burned across Spain and four people lost their lives. ALSO READ: Spanish government categorises wildfire-hit areas as ‘disaster zones’.
La Mierla, Guadalajara (July 2026)
Just a week before the Ávila wildfire, another major blaze erupted in La Mierla, in the province of Guadalajara, destroying around 32,000 hectares across a dry, sparsely populated area of Castilla-La Mancha. ALSO READ: Spain faces escalating wildfire crisis as Sánchez warns climate emergency cannot be ignored.
More than a week after it began on 24 July, the fire was described to be in a ‘stabilisation phase’ and showing favourable progress, fire prevention and suppression services said.
Losacio, Zamora (July 2022)
The Losacio wildfire in the province of Zamora (Castilla y León), which broke out on 17 July 2022, burned a total of 31,473 hectares, including both forested and non-forested land, according to Miteco’s consolidated report.
It was one of two catastrophic fires that swept through the Sierra de la Culebra that summer, together destroying more than 65,000 hectares – around one-fifth of all the land burned in Spain during 2022 – and claiming four lives.
Cortes de Pallás, Valencia (June 2012)
Two major wildfires struck the Valencian Community in 2012, together burning roughly 54,000 hectares, according to EGIF, and resulting in the death of a helicopter pilot.
The largest of the two was the Cortes de Pallás fire, first detected on 28 June. It destroyed 28,879 hectares of forest along with a further 1,812 hectares of non-forested land, bringing the total burned area to 30,691 hectares.
However, if only forest land is taken into account, the wildfire at Minas de Riotinto in southern Spain in 2004 remains the country’s most destructive, consuming 29,867 hectares of forest and 29,946 hectares overall. That fire claimed two lives and forced the evacuation of around 1,000 people.
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