This year, the EU has burned forests equivalent to one-sixth of Lithuania's territory

Forest fires in the European Union (EU) have already devastated more than 1 million hectares of land in 2025, the largest area since statistics began to be collected in 2006, according to an analysis of official data by the AFP news agency.

After surpassing the annual record of 988 524 hectares of land burned in 2017, the figure had reached 1 015 731 hectares by midday Thursday, – this is equivalent to an area larger than Cyprus, or around a sixth of Lithuania's territory of over 6.5 million hectares. The area burnt in the EU is equivalent to about half the size of Lithuania's forests (2.2 million hectares).

The estimates of forests burnt in the EU are based on aggregate data collected by AFP from the European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS) at a time when Spain and Portugal are still struggling with fires.

According to the estimates, four EU countries – Spain, Cyprus, Germany and Slovakia – have already experienced their worst year in the two decades during which the data has been collected.

Spain is battling a series of fires in the west of the country which have claimed four lives. It is the EU's worst affected country, with more than 400 000 hectares of land burnt. It is estimated that Spain accounts for almost 40% of the EU total.

Portugal, which holds the unenviable EU record of 563,530 hectares of land burnt in 2017, is the second most affected EU country. As of 21 August, an area of nearly 274 000 hectares has never been burnt at this time before.

The relevant EFFIS calculations only take into account fires that have burnt at least 30 hectares of land. According to AFP, the preliminary number of fire fatalities in the EU for 2025 is estimated at 10 – two deaths in Cyprus, one in France and seven in the Iberian Peninsula.