In the Spanish state, right wing regional governments have cut fire services, while in Tunisia people are revolting over power cuts
By Camilla Royle
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Saturday 25 July 2026
Wildfires are devouring forests (Pic: Public domain)
Uncontrolled fires are blazing around the world, and Andy Burnham is set to pour fuel on them if he gives the go ahead to more oil and gas drilling.
In the Spanish state, firefighters are unable to contain the blaze near Madrid and the government has declared a national emergency. Hot, dry and windy conditions are driving the fires.
People have been forced to flee as their homes and possessions are destroyed.
“If you don’t run from it and you try to face it, it devours you”, said 86-year-old Ecologio Cabrera who was forced to flee his village near Madrid.
He told local news that he and his family had desperately fought to save their home by spraying it with garden hoses. Firefighters arrived and told them to evacuate. They are now sheltering with hundreds of others in a sports hall.
Earlier in the month, fires killed 13 people in the Almería province.
Jesús M Castillo, a professor in ecology at the University of Seville, told Socialist Worker that the fires burn more land every year.
“It has to do with a cocktail of different factors,” he said. “Climate change of course because we have had three heatwaves. The vegetation is very dry.
“It’s also the actions of the government. The regional president in Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, is in the Tory-type PP but is very close to the far right.
“She has been cutting public services, including the service that clears the forest in the winter as well as public health and education. And she has been cutting taxes for the rich.
“Here in Andalucia there is a power-sharing agreement between the PP and the far right Vox party. They said that climate change is an invention of the left, basically.”
Jesús explained that building of illegal homes in more remote areas has also made things worse.
“And one of the big fires close to Madrid may have been started by agricultural machinery. They weren’t allowed to use tractors due to the risk of causing a spark, but they did it. And the far right is saying that the government is going against the farmers.”
In France more than 140,000 people have been evacuated from the Gironde and Landes regions near Bordeaux. Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu said that fires are at levels that have never been seen before.
In the Gironde region, some 14,000 hectares of forest have burned. It’s an area a third larger than the size of Paris.
The fires come on the back of a series of intense heatwaves that French authorities say led to 5,700 excess deaths.
In Algeria some 100 people have been hospitalised and at least six people are dead due to fires.
And in neighbouring Tunisia, 900 fires have been recorded in the past 72 hours.
Temperatures in the north African country have reached 50 degrees C. People have taken to the streets in angry protests after the state energy company cut back access to electricity to reduce strain on the grid.
The power outages, which can last for up to six hours at a time, have had a severe impact on everyday life, with people unable to store food and medications or to use lifts due to fear of getting trapped.
Some young protesters have talked about “another revolution” if the situation continues as the revolt over power cuts combines with discontent over inflation and political repression.
“Why are people out in the streets protesting? People use fridges, use oxygen, people are sick, people are tired,” said one man in a video shared by Tunisian media.
The nightmare for Canada is not over as lightning storms have triggered fresh fires in British Columbia. Around 30 wildfires in Ontario are still not under control.
The fires have impacted Britain too. Fires in the Cairngorms national park in Scotland have been burning for ten days but have worsened due to the weather conditions. Residents of the village of Nethy Bridge have had to leave their homes and smoke has reached Aberdeen 59 miles away.
Climate breakdown creates the conditions that make fires more likely—exceptionally hot and dry conditions sometimes known as fire weather.
According to the World Weather Attribution initiative, extreme fire conditions like those seen in Spain and Portugal last year are 40 times more likely in today’s warmer climate.
Conditions that would be seen once every 500 years are now routine. They now occur about once every 15 years.
Climate breakdown means we are all living in a more dangerous and destructive world.
“We have to stop burning fossil fuels,” says Jesús, “every fraction of a degree matters”.
“If the super rich don’t stop flying in private jets the situation is going to get very bad and more people are going to suffer and die.
“But the problem is already here,” he added. “It’s getting worse each year. So adaptation to climate change is getting every day more important.
“To be more resilient means building social networks and collaborating together to support one another. The government should support that. But they won’t do it. We will have to do it from below.”
Yet the new prime minister of Britain is widely expected to give the go ahead to new oil and gas drilling at Rosebank and Jackdaw in the North Sea.
As the planet burns he is driving us in the wrong direction and putting the profits of the oil and gas giants ahead of our futures. Ordinary people who have done the least to cause the crisis risk losing their homes and even their lives.
