Spain forest fires - Summer 2006

The disaster

Over a hundred forest fires ravaged the region of Galicia over the first few days of August 2006. These covered an area amounting to tens of thousands of hectares. The Spanish government has put these figures at over 80,000 hectares .

Request for assistance

On the morning of 9 August 2006, Spain requested European civil protection assistance to help combat the forest fires raging in the region of Galicia. Spain's request for assistance included fire-fighting aircraft, helicopters and fire trucks.

The EU response

The request triggered a rapid response from the Monitoring and Information Centre (MIC) of the European Commission. The MIC immediately alerted the civil protection authorities of the 30 countries participating in the Community Civil Protection Mechanism. Within a few hours, Spain received additional fire-fighting airplanes, fire fighters and vehicles from several European Member States. Italy, Portugal and France were the first to provide civil protection assistance through the Community Mechanism.

The first assistance to Spain arrived within hours after the activation of the Community Mechanism for Civil Protection. The aid consisted of:

Due to the help provided by participating states and to improved weather conditions Spain eventually tamed the fires in Galicia. The operation was closed on 15 August 2006.