Madrid, July 20: Spain recent deadly wildfire has reignited calls for a shift in how wildfire disasters are assessed, with experts urging authorities to prioritise human safety over traditional indicators such as the number of fires or hectares burnt.
In an article geographer Fernando Medina Morales said the July 9 wildfire in Los Gallardos, Andalusia, which claimed 13 lives, demonstrated that wildfire severity should increasingly be measured by its impact on people rather than only environmental damage.
The expert noted that wildfire management has traditionally focused on the number of incidents, burnt area and firefighting efficiency. However as climate change and expanding human settlements increase fire risks, protecting lives must become the primary objective.
Official data from Andalusia INFOCA programme showed that between 2021 and 2025, around 75-82 per cent of wildfires were contained before spreading beyond one hectare. Despite this a small number of extreme fires accounted for the majority of environmental, economic and social losses.
According to Medina Morales, the Los Gallardos fire spread rapidly through a wildland urban interface areas where forests, farmland and residential settlements overlap making evacuations more complex due to scattered housing, limited road networks and mixed populations.
The article emphasised that emergency alert systems alone are insufficient unless warning messages are clear easily understood and available in multiple languages where necessary. Previous research on Spain’s ES Alert system found that while most people received alerts, their responses depended on how they interpreted the messages and perceived the level of risk.
The expert stressed that effective wildfire preparedness should include advance public awareness, evacuation planning, mapping of isolated homes, identification of vulnerable residents and regular emergency drills.
He added that ongoing investment in prevention, land management and firefighting resources remains essential, but improving public understanding and decision making during emergencies will be equally critical as wildfires become more frequent and intense under changing climate conditions.
Medina Morales concluded that while investigations into the Los Gallardos wildfire are still underway the tragedy underscores that the true cost of wildfires should be measured by the lives they endanger as much as by the land they burn.