With hundreds of firefighters still deployed in Madrid, Ávila and Toledo battling the worst forest fire ever recorded in Spain, it is still too early to know exactly how much the blazes will cost the state’s coffers this year. However, taking the 2025 figures into account, one thing is clear: the bill will be steep.
According to Greenpeace’s report (source in Spanish) "Grandes incendios forestales" (Major forest fires), drawn up using data from the National Association of Forestry Companies (Asemfo), it is estimated that last year the Spanish government allocated between 3.548 and 6.741 billion euros to extinguishing fires which, according to data (source in Spanish) from the Interior Ministry, ravaged nearly 354,793 hectares across the country, in a total of 8,189 recorded incidents.
The calculation varies depending on whether the benchmark is the estimated per-hectare cost from the Navarra Forestry Agency, set at 10,000 euros, or the figures used by Asemfo, which put the cost at around 19,000 euros per hectare. In any case, these estimates only cover the average cost of firefighting operations, and do not include the restoration of the affected areas.
Given that, according to the latest briefing (source in Spanish) from the Ministry for Ecological Transition, the forest area affected by fires in Spain since the start of the year already stands at 172,396 hectares – virtually half the total that burned in the country in 2025 – the bill so far this year could amount to between 1.723 and 3.275 billion euros.
