Overview
- La Mierla in the Sierra Norte de Guadalajara remains uncontrolled and by Saturday had burned thousands of hectares while forcing hundreds of residents from about a dozen municipalities.
- Authorities have deployed large resources to La Mierla, including an added 100‑person section of the Unidad Militar de Emergencias and hundreds of firefighters and aircraft to build firebreaks and defend towns.
- Investigations are under way into multiple causes with early Guardia Civil inquiries pointing to a combine harvester in the La Mierla ignition and a separate Zamora operation detaining one man and investigating another over 15 alleged deliberate fires.
- Other major blazes continue to demand attention: Orés in Zaragoza has burned roughly 15,400 hectares and is complex but showing some improvement, while several Catalonia fires (Pontils, Vilademuls, Baronia de Rialb) were worked by dozens of crews and mostly stabilised.
- This summer’s fire season is worse than last year, with triple the area burned to date, producing heavy evacuations, damage to protected areas, economic hits to rural tourism, and conflicting provisional counts as operations and probes continue.