The EFFIS database began in 2006 and 2017, with 988,524 hectares burned, which was the year with the highest burned area until now.

This year, as of August 21, the system—whose figures are still provisional—estimated 1,015,731 hectares burned by fires across the EU, according to figures from the French news agency AFP, based on EFFIS country-by-country data.

Four countries have also surpassed the previous annual burned area record: Spain, Cyprus, Germany, and Slovakia. Spain, which has been facing a wave of fires in the northwest and west for weeks, is the country with the most burned area this year, around 400,000 hectares, equivalent to almost 40% of the total land burned in the EU so far.

Portugal holds the annual record for burned area in the EFFIS database: 563,530 hectares burned in 2017, the year of the fires in Pedrógão Grande and other regions in the central region, which killed 119 people.

After Spain and Portugal, Romania is the EU country with the most burned area this year (126,000 hectares).

Also, according to EFFIS, between January 1st and August 19th, forest fires in 22 of the 27 EU countries caused emissions of 35 megatons of carbon dioxide (CO2), an unprecedented level for this time of year. The record annual CO2 emissions from fires in 2017 were 41 megatons.

2017 also saw the highest number of deaths in the EU from fires: more than 200, in Portugal, Italy, Spain, and France.

This year, four people died in Spain, three in Portugal, two in Cyprus, and one in France, according to data collected and reported by AFP.