Spain's government confirmed on July 28 that the wildfire burning through the Ávila region is still out of control. It is the largest wildfire in the country's recent history. A new heatwave is pushing temperatures toward 40°C (about 104°F), and the Madrid region is under a red weather warning — the most serious level. More than 50,000 hectares (about 124,000 acres) have burned in Ávila alone, part of roughly 77,000 hectares (190,000 acres) burned across the whole country, according to Minister for Ecological Transition Sara Aagesen.

Firefighters are now changing their approach. Instead of trying to put the fire out directly, they are watching the areas that have already burned and cooling them down, hoping to prevent the fire from restarting. This shift is a practical admission: with the heat warning in place — 35°C in the mountains, 38°C elsewhere — the conditions are too dangerous for a head-on fight. Thirteen roads in the Madrid region stay closed (El País).

The Ávila fire is the centre of a wildfire crisis that has gripped central Spain for over a week. On July 24, three separate fires in the Madrid region merged into one giant fire, called the Sierra Oeste wildfire (#IFSierraOeste), making it much harder for emergency teams to manage (Comunidad de Madrid). The regional government had already declared a critical situation on July 23, when councillor Carlos Novillo spoke to the public about the worsening conditions.

The number of people forced from their homes is large. More than 30,000 people in the Madrid region had to leave by July 25, and another 20,000 were told to stay indoors, according to Reuters. Officials warned that strong winds could make fighting the fires even harder. In Valencia, about 16,000 people across 20 towns were evacuated because of a fire that started July 25, though the regional government has since lifted the stay-at-home order for the town of Vall D'Uixo (BBC News).

The crisis reaches beyond Spain. In Portugal, firefighters are battling a large fire on three fronts in the eastern Guarda area.

Numbers from the EU's Copernicus wildfire monitoring service show how bad this year has been. As of July 20, about 104,423 hectares had burned across Spain in 2026. That is compared to 41,781 hectares during the same period last year — a 150% increase (Reuters). Before the Ávila fire became the largest, the biggest of the year was the Guadalajara blaze, which burned about 32,000 hectares (79,000 acres) and had started to stabilise by July 22. An earlier fire near Madrid in mid-July burned about 1,500 hectares and led to the evacuation of a summer camp.

Government representative Nicanor Sen said the Ávila fire had a "quite favourable" night, though "small flare-ups" were still being watched. That careful language matches what Spanish officials have said throughout the INFOMA 2026 forest fire campaign, which runs from June 15 to September 30. By July 15, the Madrid region reported that 129 of 159 fires that year — over 81% — had been caught early and put out before spreading. On July 7, the region had already banned machinery and fireworks in forest areas because of extreme fire risk.

AEMET, Spain's weather agency, has issued two heatwave warnings this month. One on July 18 covered the southeast, the Guadalquivir valley, the Ebro valley, and low-lying areas. Another, prepared July 27, covers the entire peninsula, the Balearic Islands, and the Canary Islands, with highs of 40°C forecast for July 28.

The broader context here is one of risks piling on top of each other. When three Madrid fires joined into the Sierra Oeste complex on July 24, they formed a single fire line that is much harder to manage than three smaller, separate ones — think of trying to guard one very long fence instead of three short ones. The timing, just before the latest heatwave, stretches firefighters across multiple fires in Ávila, Madrid, Valencia, and Portugal all at once. The Copernicus data showing more than double the burned area compared to last year raises the question of whether 2026 could match or exceed 2022, when about 310,000 hectares burned across Spain. With the fire campaign running through September 30, the most dangerous months are not over. The shift from actively fighting fires to watching and cooling already-burned areas tells us that authorities are bracing for conditions they may not be able to fully control — only try to contain.