On July 24, 2026, the Spanish government declared a state of emergency of national interest in the Community of Madrid and the province of Ávila in response toseveral simultaneous wildfires fueled by an intense heat wave. Theevacuation of numerous municipalitiesand the activation of the Military Emergency Unit confirmed what research has been warning for years: fires that reach built-up areas require responses that are radically different from those that have thus far guided forest firefighting efforts in Spain.

The area where natural terrain contact areas is technically known as the urban-forest interface.Globally, this area grew by 35.6 % between 2000 and 2020, and it is where the worst-case risk scenarios occur: difficult evacuations, fire spreading from structure to structure, and the diversion of resources that could otherwise be dedicated to larger fires. The problem is not new, but the response—in terms of rules and regulations fragmented and insufficient.

What Other Countries Have Already Learned
Greece is home to one of the most vulnerable wildfire-prone landscapes in Europe. As a result, it has overhauled its framework following the tragedies inMati(2018, with 104 fatalities) andAlexandroupoli(2023, the largest wildfire in the EU since satellite records began, with more than 90,000 hectares burned).

In May 2023, a joint decision by three ministries established protection regulations for all buildings located within forest areas or within 300 meters of them, classifying them according to four risk levels. These regulations require such buildings to combine passive measures (non-combustible roofing, facades made of non-combustible materials, metal screens on openings, solid fencing) and active measures (sprinklers, water intakes, fire detection systems) with a mandatory 10-meter perimeter buffer zone divided into three levels of decreasing vegetation density.

Theresearch supporting these measures shows that fuel management at the urban-forest interface, combined with the structural resilience of buildings,significantly reduces losses. Furthermore, it reveals that fire damage in Greece began long before the fire front arrived, due to embers that entered through open windows, pergolas, and wooden roofs.

Australia serves reference letter in this field. Its National Building Code includes arule buildings in fire-prone areasthat classifies lots into six risk categories—based on the region’s fire hazard index, subject , distance to that vegetation, and slope of the land—and prescribes materials, distances, and protection systems commensurate with each level.

One of the highest levels requires noncombustible walls, tempered-glass windows protected by metal mesh, or fire-rated shutters. Another level requires a minimum setback of 10 meters from vegetation or elements that have been tested under direct fire.

Both frameworks—the Greek and the Australian—rely on two complementary strategies: strengthening the building with materials and construction details that prevent embers and heat from igniting it, and creating a defensible space with a managed vegetation strip that reduces the intensity of the fire before it reaches the building.

The Other Variable: The Forest
Building better is necessary, but not enough.There is broad consensusthatpreventive forest management—selective clearing, firebreaks, prescribed burns, and control of accumulated biomass—is the measure that most effectively reduces risk in these urban-forest interface areas.

In Spain, decades of withdrawal and changes in land use have created dense, continuous forests that act as fire accelerants. When grazing and forest management disappear from an area, the forest is left without anyone to manage it. The accumulated vegetation now fuels the fires. Without active forest management, any update Technical Building Code Building too late.

Such management, however, cannot be sustained by one-time subsidies. It requires thatthe forest generateongoingeconomic valuethrough extensive livestock farming, forestry, mixed farming, rural tourism, timber and non-timber products… A forest that generates income is a forest that is managed. As the common saying in Mediterranean forest management goes, fires are not put out in the summer, but in the winter: the fire season is determined months in advance through the management—or withdrawalof the land.

Who Should Lead the Change, and How
The reform rules and regulations Spain needs cannot arise from the urgency of an emergency declared at midnight. It requires a pluralistic, technical process that is sustained over time.

There are many different and complementary stakeholders involved:

• Fire departments and civil protection agencies, which are familiar with how fires actually behave at the urban-forest interface.

• The professional associations of architecture and engineering, which are responsible for translating scientific knowledge into building codes.

• Homeowners' associations and neighborhood associations in suburban developments, whose self-protection plans need to be updated.

• Agricultural and forestry organizations, without whose partnership preventive forest partnership is unfeasible (and whose economic livelihood is tied to prevention).

• The autonomous communities, which have jurisdiction over urban planning and land use.

• The state legislator is manager instructions forestry regulations and the Technical Building Code.

• The insurance sector, which can provide financial incentives for structural resilience.

• Environmental organizations are essential to ensure that forest management does not lead to indiscriminate logging.

The process must begin with an assessment: an updated map of connection zones, assessment the existing building stock, and a review of municipal emergency plans. Initiatives such asthe geographic information system for Navarre’s emergency services—which allows for real-time risk mapping and response coordination—demonstrate that such an assessment is already technically feasible.

On that basis, the reform rules and regulations move forward with technical soundness and institutional consensus, without the need for improvisation or emergency decrees.

Spain has a real opportunity ahead of it: to turn this tragedy into a collective learning experience before next summer arrives.

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César Martín-Gómez Full Professor Energy Systems and Installations in Architecture and Urban Planning, University of Navarra. José Manuel Cabrero Full Professor. Structures and Wood Construction. Chair , University of Navarra. 29.07.2026