Spain is battling more than a dozen large wildfires fanned by a prolonged heatwave, leaving three people dead—a civilian near Madrid and two volunteer firefighters in the León province—and forcing mass evacuations. Around 9,500 residents have been moved from their homes since the weekend, adding to the 1,400 people who fled earlier blazes in Galicia. The most critical fronts stretch from Galicia and Castile and Leon to the outskirts of Madrid, where flames have threatened the UNESCO-listed Las Médulas site and scorched at least 22,000 hectares of forest and farmland. Fourteen roads were closed at the height of the emergency and the high-speed rail link between Madrid and Galicia was temporarily halted. Seven people remain hospitalised, four of them in critical condition with severe burns. Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska has activated the EU Civil Protection Mechanism, requesting two Canadair water-bombing aircraft. France responded by dispatching two Canadairs and a coordination plane, while Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez warned that “the risk remains extreme” as temperatures stay above 40 °C. The Spanish crisis is part of a broader wave of fires sweeping southern Europe. The EU Science Hub estimates that blazes have destroyed about 440,000 hectares across the continent so far this year—twice the long-term average—underscoring scientists’ warnings that hotter, drier conditions linked to climate change are intensifying wildfire seasons.