No, Spain’s wildfires were not started on purpose to clear land for construction projects
Spain has battled several devastating wildfires. The disaster is prompting claims that the fires were deliberately caused to make way for construction projects. Here is why these claims are false.
READ MORE : http://www.euronews.com/2025/08/28/no-spains-wildfires-were-not-started-on-purpose-to-clear-land-for-construction-projects
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00:00No, Spain's wildfires were not deliberately started for construction projects.
00:09Spain is battling its worst wildfire season in three decades,
00:12with several major fires ravaging hundreds of thousands of hectares across several regions.
00:17The fires were made worse by the summer heat waves.
00:20However, a wave of online disinformation is claiming that the wildfires were caused on purpose
00:25to clear the land for construction projects.
00:28But this claim is false.
00:30Spain has a law called La Ley de Montes that explicitly forbids changing the use of any forest land affected by fire for 30 years.
00:38It's a safeguard specifically designed to prevent intentional burning for development.
00:43There are only two exceptions.
00:46The first is in case land use changes were already approved before the fire.
00:50The second allows a change if it's necessary to build infrastructure that will be essential for the public interest.
00:56This means that developers cannot exploit fires to bypass these roads,
01:00so claims that there are loopholes like selling or burning land to force reclassification are entirely false.
01:06Other false posts claim that the blazing Cádiz in Andalucía was started on purpose to enable several coastal developments.
01:14The fire in Atlanterra, in Tarifa, passed near to housing developments, but these plots had already been designated as urban land.
01:22Besides, they were not damaged by the fire.
01:25Another rumor claims that the fires would facilitate construction on a luxury tourism project in El Endiscal.
01:31But not only is this project plan outside of the burn zone within a natural park, it has also not even entered the construction approval process yet.
01:40Meanwhile, near Madrid, a wire fire in Tres Cantos was linked to a new solar farm.
01:45But the solar plant site is 12 kilometers away in a different municipality, has had its full approval since 2024 and did not rely on any fire-related land clearance.
01:56But also, it's kind of savororaid at the very low
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