Over 5,000 hectares burnt in Ireland during EU’s worst year for wildfires

Seán McCárthaigh

There was a significant increase in the number of wildfires and burnt areas of land in Ireland last year, as new figures show 2025 was the EU’s most destructive wildfire season on record.

Over 5,000 hectares of land were burnt by wildfires in the Republic during 2025 after a comparatively low level of incidents the previous year.

A report by the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre shows 99 separate fires were recorded in Ireland last year compared to 10 in 2024.

Last year’s wildfires in the Republic covered an area of 5,013 hectares, mostly on natural open spaces with sparse vegetation – up from 200 hectares the previous year.

Almost a third of land affected by wildfires in Ireland last year were on Natura2000 sites – protected ecological areas.

The 1,657 hectares located within protected EU habitats in 2025 represent 0.14 per cent of protected sites in the country.

Records show the most number of fires as well as related damage occurred in the month of April with the majority of wildfires occurring between March and May.

More than 4,000 hectares were burnt by 30 large wildfires that individually covered an area of at least 30 hectares.

It was the highest annual number of large wildfires in the past 15 years and the largest area of damage caused by large wildfires since 2017.

The JRC report said overall wildfire statistics in Ireland last year were “in line with the average” of recent years.

Large wildfires were recorded during 2025 in Wicklow, Wexford, Roscommon, Dublin, Kerry, and Donegal.

Last week, Coillte, the National Parks and Wildlife Service and fire services issued an appeal for people to be extra careful and vigilant at the start of the high-risk period for wildfires.

Coillte – the State-owned commercial forestry company – said it had recorded more than 300 fires on its lands over the past five years which had resulted in more than 2,500 hectares of land being damaged.

“At this time of the year, particularly in the uplands and in woodlands, the vegetation can be very dry, and it only takes one or two days of consecutive dry weather for that vegetation to fully dry out and become very flammable,” said Coillte spokesperson, Pat Neville.

“Our wonderful habitats, our peatlands, and our forests that take decades or centuries to grow can be wiped out overnight from one careless campfire,” said Mr Neville.

The NPWS confirmed it is operating helicopter surveillance flights again this year to spot wildfires as soon as possible.

Under the Wildlife Act it is illegal to burn lands between March 1st and August 31st.

The JRC said a record number of wildfires broke out across the EU last year with over 1.07 million hectares – equivalent to approximately the area of Cyprus – ravaged by fire across several member states.

The figure more than doubled to over 2.2 million hectares when other areas in the Middle East and North Africa which are monitored by the European Forest Fire Information System are included.

The JRC said the level of burnt area was up 20 per cent on the previous year and almost 2.5 times more than 2023.

It noted the most affected country last year was Ukraine with over 9,000 wildfires accounting for around 30 per cent of all damage mapped across Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa.

The intensity of wildfires across Europe peaked in August with very large fires spread across several Mediterranean countries.

A prolonged heatwave in the first three weeks of August triggered 22 very large fires in Portugal and Spain almost simultaneously.

More than 460,585 hectares of land in both countries were burnt, accounting for 43 per cent of the total burnt area in the EU last year.

Only two EU countries recorded no incidents of wildfires last year – Luxembourg and Malta.

The JRC said the level of area burnt by wildfires last year was nearly double the annual average over the previous two decades.

Record levels of wildfires were recorded in Germany, Spain, Cyprus. Kosovo, the UK, and Slovakia.

Approximately 39 per cent of the area damaged by wildfires in the EU in 2025 were protected EU habitats, according to the JRC.

The most significant damage proportionately was caused in Portugal where 2.2 per cent of all its protected nature areas were destroyed by fire.