Reuters reported the destruction of more than 1 million hectares of forest in the European Union by fires.

Fires have destroyed more than 1 million hectares of forest in the European Union (EU), which was the highest figure since the beginning of official calculations conducted in 2006. This was reported on August 26 by the Reuters news agency, citing data from the European Forest Fire Information System of the European Union.

"As of Tuesday [August 26], a total of 102.8 million hectares of land in the EU had been destroyed by fires, which is an area larger than the territory of Cyprus and more than the total for any other year," the publication says.

According to the agency, the previous record was set in 2017, when the area of forest fires in Europe was about 998 thousand hectares.

It is specified that in 2025, Spain and Portugal suffered the most from forest fires, which together accounted for about two-thirds of the area of fires in the EU.

In addition, the number of forest fires increased sharply from August 5 to August 19, during which a 16—day heat wave was observed on the Iberian Peninsula.

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On August 14, Bloomberg reported that thousands of residents and tourists had been evacuated due to large-scale forest fires in Greece and Spain. It is predicted that most of Greece, including Athens and the adjacent Attica region, will also face dangerous forest fires.

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