Spain mobilises military and ministry units to battle forest fires amid heat wave

A series of forest fires have erupted across Spain as a severe heat wave persists. In Castellón province, a blaze near Castellfort prompted the deployment of one fire‑brigade unit, two regional forest‑fire units, three aircraft—including a helicopter—and a forest‑coordinator. Simultaneously, fires broke out in Malpica de Tajo (Toledo) and Cabezarubias del Puerto (Ciudad Real), involving dozens of ground crews, multiple aerial assets and the activation of regional emergency systems.

President Pedro Sánchez announced that the Ministry for the Ecological Transition (MITECO) and the Unidad Militar de Emergencias (UME) have been mobilised. The UME sent a full section of 50 personnel and 17 vehicles to Soneja (Castellón) and 40 personnel with six firefighting trucks and a tanker to an incident near Loporzano (Huesca). MITECO contributed helicopters and fixed‑wing aircraft operating in at least ten municipalities, including Jaén, Soria, Navarra, Valencia, Asturias, León and Ourense. The government urged citizens to exercise caution, citing the evacuation of the village of Azuébar in Castellón. No fatalities have been reported, and firefighting efforts continue to contain the flames.