All the ingredients came together to create the perfect storm: a particularly dry spring in western Spain, followed by a heatwave that wiped out any remaining moisture in dense, dry ground-level vegetation. Add to that a lack of forest management and limited resources, something fire brigades across the affected autonomous communities have repeatedly warned about.
This combination has resulted in the most severe wave of summer wildfires Spain has seen since 1994, when 437,602 hectares burned, according to data from the Ministry of the Environment.
