Since the beginning of this summer, Spain has recorded 50 major forest fires, a number surpassed only by the fires witnessed in 2006, when 58 major fires were recorded, according to data published by the Spanish Ministry of Environmental Transformation. The Spanish newspaper 20 Minutos indicated that in total, from January 1 to mid-August, about 2,406 large and small fires were recorded. The newspaper stressed that this figure would be much higher than it is today, because the independent communities do not provide data until the fires have settled, such as the fires in Bejes in the province of Castellón, which have not yet stabilized despite destroying 20,000 hectares. According to data from the European Forest Fire Information System (Effis), which uses satellite images provided by Copernicus for its estimates, 286,563 hectares have already been burned in Spain or 39.3% of the entire forest area in the European Union. Thus Spain is the EU country most affected by the fires, followed by Romania (149,172 hectares), Portugal (92,165 hectares), France (62,084) and Italy (47,363).

source :youm7