Sagunto council calls for a national wildfire prevention plan
Sagunto's city council unanimously approved a declaration on Thursday backing people affected by Spain's wildfires and demanding a coordinated national forest-fire prevention plan.
Sagunto's City Council (the local government) unanimously approved a formal declaration during its August plenary session (monthly council meeting) on Thursday. The declaration expresses solidarity with people affected by the wildfires burning across Spain this summer, and calls for political unity among all levels of government to finally build a national wildfire prevention strategy.
The agreement urges Spain's national and regional governments to make full forest management and fire prevention a strategic environmental priority, backed by a stable, multi-year budget instead of year-to-year funding. It also asks for faster, simpler paperwork to clear ravines, forest tracks, mountains, and the urban areas next to them, and calls for a coordinated State Plan built on cooperation between institutions. The declaration also thanks the emergency crews and workers fighting the fires.
Sagunto's council is speaking out during a particularly harsh summer. Since late July, more than 100,000 people have been evacuated or confined because of fires that have burned over 77,000 hectares in the Madrid, Ávila and Toledo regions, according to the figures cited in the municipal text. In the Valencian Community, the fire that started in Vall d'Uixó spread into the Sierra de Espadán natural park, burning around 9,300 hectares and forcing about 18,000 people to evacuate. A fire in the Salt de l'Aigua ravine, in Manises, killed a local farmer, while the Burgohondo fire, in Ávila, burned more than 50,000 hectares — the largest wildfire in Spain's recent history.
Government figures quoted in the declaration are just as stark: since 1 January, fires have burned 152,687 hectares in 32 major wildfires, compared with 24,133 hectares over the same period in 2025 — six times more.
The risk is close to home for Sagunto too. The municipality covers 13,243 hectares, of which 4,193 are forest land, and includes protected natural areas such as the Sierra Calderona mountains, the Marjal dels Moros wetlands, and the Marjal de Almenara wetlands. The council notes that since 1993, 114 fires have been recorded within its borders, affecting 454.5 hectares — about 3.5% of the municipality's land.
The declaration calls, in the end, for a shift toward greater investment in firefighting and prevention that combines scientific knowledge with the traditional land management used by farmers and herders. According to Ajuntament de Sagunt — Actualidad (Sagunto City Council), with additional data from Wikipedia on Spain's 2026 wildfires.