The wildfires in Italy have struck several regions simultaneously over recent days. Between the start of the year and early July 2026, according to data from the European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS) approximately 11,566 hectares have burned across the country, of which more than 5,000 hectares fell in June and July alone. From the coast of Sardinia to the Alps in Piedmont and down to Sicily, several fronts are currently active, with beach evacuations, road closures and visible consequences for residents and travellers alike.
Sardinia: evacuated beaches and a burning coastal forest
The most dramatic images are coming from northern Italy's most popular Mediterranean holiday destination. On 13 July 2026, a fire broke out in the pine woodland of Monti Russu near Aglientu in the Gallura region, destroying around 20 hectares of coastal forest, as reported by L'Unione Sarda. The fire brigade cleared the beaches of Litarroni and Naracu Nieddu, the provincial road 90 between Castelsardo and Santa Teresa Gallura was closed for several hours, and two Canadair water-bombing aircraft along with a Super Puma helicopter from the fire service were dispatched.
Fire hotspots in Italy
Source: NASA FIRMS · updated daily
What does this map show? Each dot is a thermal anomaly detected by satellite (NASA FIRMS, VIIRS 375 m and MODIS 1 km): the centre of a pixel where elevated heat was measured during the overpass. These are not officially surveyed burned areas. Clouds, smoke and the overpass times can hide fires or show them with a delay; not every anomaly is a wildfire. Dense clusters of dots reveal the affected zones but remain individual measurements. Tap a dot or hover over it for intensity and the nearest town. No guarantee is given.
As ANSA in Cagliari reports, a small holiday development of villas also came under threat. A faulty Enel electricity pylon beside a pumping station at the Gallura Beach Village resort is suspected to be the cause of the fire, and the public prosecutor's office has opened an investigation. As early as the beginning of July, the Cagliari region had experienced a similar series of fires: between Selargius and Monserrato, around 100 hectares of farmland burned in just two days, six people were evacuated as a precaution, and state roads 554 and 387 were temporarily closed.
Piedmont: "ecological catastrophe" in Verbano-Cusio-Ossola
Further north, the summer of 2026 presents a less typical fire picture. According to a statement from the regional government, between 800 and 900 hectares of forest burned across the provinces of Turin, Vercelli, Novara and Verbano-Cusio-Ossola, as Sky TG24 reports. The Regione Piemonte described the situation in an official statement as a genuine ecological catastrophe with considerable damage to local biodiversity. This region lies in close proximity to Lago Maggiore, whose tourist season revolves around events such as the Stresa Festival .
According to the fire service, the fires were caused by lightning strikes during severe thunderstorms in the preceding days, which spread rapidly owing to persistently high temperatures, parched soil and föhn winds in the Alps. On 8 July, Domodossola recorded 39 degrees, while Ala di Stura at an altitude of 1,000 metres reached 33.5 degrees. This combination of weather conditions and ground conditions makes it clear why the fire zone in 2026 has also reached alpine areas where wildfires have until now been relatively rare.
Sicily and the South: unrelenting fires with temperatures above 40 degrees
Sicily and the southern regions have been battling a series of fires since June, intensified by this summer's heatwaves. Several active outbreaks were reported in the provinces of Palermo and Oristano, while simultaneously a new wave of Saharan air is pushing temperatures above 40 degrees. The current weather situation and its effects have been described in detail in our article on the third heatwave in Italy .
Historically, Sicily, Calabria and Campania are the Italian regions most severely affected by wildfires. According to the latest ISPRA assessments, 71 per cent of the national wildfire area was concentrated in these three regions. The combination of Mediterranean vegetation, prolonged dry spells and strong winds such as the scirocco makes them particularly vulnerable, and the warming of the Mediterranean is further amplifying this trend.
The situation at the end of July: Calabria at the centre of the fire season
In the days around 21 July 2026, the focus of Italy's fire season has shifted markedly to Calabria. According to the Vigili del Fuoco, within a single 36-hour period more than 200 fire brigade call-outs for vegetation fires were recorded across all provinces in the region, with 26 running concurrently. Particularly affected areas include the Pollino National Park, as well as Squillace Lido, Sant'Eufemia di Lamezia Terme, Cassano allo Ionio and Acri. Drawing on EFFIS/Copernicus assessments, Legambiente is no longer speaking of an emergency but of a structural crisis: in Calabria alone, 179 fires covering around 1,940 hectares were recorded by mid-July, and more than 150 further fire incidents have since been added to that total.
Also Sicily at the end of July in a critical condition. The highest alert level is in force across the entire island, with firefighters in Catania, Messina and Enna facing an extraordinary workload, and active fires burning in Castronovo, Bivona and Alcamo Marina. In Agrigento, a firefighter suffered a heart attack while on duty. On Sardinia, fires have destroyed thousands of hectares of pasture and crops, with livestock, beehives and fodder reserves lost. The farming association Coldiretti puts initial estimates at around 10 million euros and notes that the figure is likely to rise further.
New flashpoints and the fourth heatwave
In the days around 25 July 2026, the wildfire situation in Italy continued to escalate. According to current reports from the weather service 3B Meteo , pine forests along the northern coast of Gallipoli in Apulia were burning over the weekend, where Tramontana winds spread the flames rapidly between Padula Bianca and Rivabella, forcing the evacuation of beach areas. In Molise, a fire between Campomarino and Termoli reached the Adriatic railway line, disrupting rail services between Pescara and Foggia for several hours and requiring the evacuation of a number of holiday resorts. The metropolitan area of Rome was also affected: the largest fire developed between EUR, Tor Pagnotta and Laurentina, temporarily bringing traffic on the Grande Raccordo Anulare to a standstill.
The EFFIS figures from the European Copernicus system document the scale of the week: 36,600 hectares have burned in Italy since the start of the year, of which nearly 19,000 burned in a single week from 14 to 21 July, well above the historical average for the years 2006 to 2025. Three additional Canadair aircraft have been stationed at Lamezia Terme airport in Calabria to support firefighting operations in Sicily and on the southern mainland. Meteorologists are forecasting the fourth and potentially most intense heatwave of the summer of 2026 for the final days of July and the beginning of August, with local highs above 40 degrees, this time centred on central and northern Italy.
Gargano: tourists evacuated from beaches by boat
The most dramatic incident of recent days occurred on Sunday, 26 July 2026, on the Apulian Adriatic coast. Late in the morning, a wildfire broke out in the rural area of Pile Fraballe on the outskirts of Peschici in the province of Foggia. Driven by strong Libeccio winds, it spread within a matter of hours to the coastal coves of Zaiana and Manaccora. A vast area of macchia mediterranea and Aleppo pines was affected, and the column of smoke was visible dozens of kilometres away. As the flames reached the shoreline itself, a conventional land evacuation was not possible. The Italian Guardia Costiera , together with private excursion boats, ferried bathers from the beaches out to open water and transferred them to the port of Vieste, where Mayor Giuseppe Nobiletti had opened sports halls and public buildings as emergency accommodation.
As Il Sole 24 Ore reports, citing the Guardia Costiera, around 300 tourists were brought by boat from several campsites in Peschici to Vieste alone, with a further 200 bathers boarding directly from the beaches. In total, more than a thousand holiday villages, campsites and tourist facilities between Peschici and Vieste had to be evacuated or closed. The firefighting operation involved two helicopters and a Canadair water bomber, along with traffic diversions: the Litoranea (provincial road SP 52) was closed, with bus services rerouted via the SS 89. The Mayor of Peschici, Luigi d'Arenzo, told Il Fatto Quotidianothat he was certain the fires had been set deliberately, as they had broken out at several points simultaneously. The president of Ferrovie del Gargano, Vincenzo Scarcia Germano, compared the destruction to the devastating fire of 2007, whose painstaking pine forest regeneration around Peschici has now been undone once again. No injuries were reported.
31 July: ISPRA report records 741 square kilometres burned, and new fires break out in Vieste
On 31 July 2026, the Italian environmental agency ISPRA published its interim assessment of the wildfire season since the start of the year. As ANSA summarises from the ISPRA report, approximately 1,070 large wildfires were recorded by satellite between 1 January and 28 July 2026, covering a total burned area of around 741 square kilometres, equivalent to the area of the province of Lodi. Over 60 per cent of the affected land comprised permanent grassland, 16 per cent agricultural land and around 14 per cent forest ecosystems, including 37 square kilometres of evergreen broadleaf woodland and 24 square kilometres of coniferous forest. The regional distribution follows a clear pattern, with the south and the two islands as the main hotspots: Sicily 510 square kilometres, Calabria 78 square kilometres, Apulia 48 square kilometres, together accounting for 73 per cent of the national total.
At the same time, new fires broke out on the morning of 31 July in the Gargano and on Sardinia. As Il Fatto Quotidiano documents in its current weekend bulletin, the pineta of Vieste on the Adriatic caught fire at around 11:00, whereupon Mayor Giuseppe Nobiletti went directly to the scene to oversee firefighting efforts. Further inland, around twenty people were evacuated from an agriturismo in the Bosco di San Marco in Lamis in the province of Foggia. On Sardinia, two fires broke out in Padru in the Gallura and in Pimentel in the south of the island. The Health Ministry alert level is rising further for the coming weekend: on Saturday, 19 cities are on red alert, and on Sunday 23 of the 27 monitored cities, with peak temperatures of 41 degrees. The European EFFIS warning, which has flagged elevated fire risk for southern and central Italy from 31 July onwards, is now operational and is expected to remain so until mid-August.
The climate crisis as an amplifier
According to EFFIS data, 2025 was the worst wildfire year in the EU since systematic recording began in 2006, with more than 1.07 million hectares burned, and the figures for 2026 so far already exceed the long-term trend. The Italian environmental agency ISPRA notes in its most recent reports that the Mediterranean is warming at roughly twice the global average rate, and that the fire season in southern and central Europe is lengthening accordingly.
For travellers, this calls not for alarm but for preparation. During the summer months, it is advisable to check the warnings issued by the Protezione Civile in Sardiniabefore planning walks or excursions in forested areas. Those already on the ground should follow the instructions of local authorities strictly, taking road closures and beach evacuations seriously and making no attempt to pass through restricted zones. Practical tips for dealing with the extreme summer temperatures themselves can be found in our dedicated article on the heat in Italy compiled.
