{"id":56775,"date":"2026-07-25T09:51:27","date_gmt":"2026-07-25T09:51:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/56775\/"},"modified":"2026-07-25T09:51:27","modified_gmt":"2026-07-25T09:51:27","slug":"wildfires-in-france-and-spain-photos-show-scale-of-devastation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/56775\/","title":{"rendered":"Wildfires in France and Spain: Photos show scale of devastation"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Photos from on the ground show the scale of the devastation as massive wildfires devastate southwestern France and central Spain<\/a>. <\/p>\n

More than 200,000 people have been evacuated, including residents of large areas of Bordeaux<\/a>, such as Le Haillan, Eysines, and Merignac. <\/p>\n

French Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu said that the fires had \u201creached a level that has never been seen before\u201d.<\/p>\n

The French army has been deployed to assist, while officials from both Spain<\/a> and France<\/a> warn that strong winds are expected to worsen the fires.<\/p>\n

Spain\u2019s government, meanwhile, has declared a national emergency, as huge fires near the capital, Madrid<\/a>, and the nearby province of \u00c1vila forced the evacuations of 25,000 people. <\/p>\n

\"FirefightersFirefighters battle a blaze near El Escorial, 60 km northwest of Madrid (AFP\/Getty)<\/p>\n

Dozens of firefighters have been injured, authorities said, but no deaths were reported in either France or Spain.<\/p>\n

Madrid’s regional president Isabel D\u00edaz Ayuso said that it marked the \u201cworst fire in the history of the region\u201d and that conditions had been made worse by a combination of high temperatures, wind and the merging of fires.<\/p>\n

The city\u2019s emergency management chief Carlos Novillo said on Friday that the fire was \u201cat its peak and… currently beyond the capacity of firefighters to contain\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"MembersMembers of the Kiat Yack Martial Arts Academy of Spanish, Moroccan, Colombian and Romanian origin move to help extinguish flames around the academy in the village of El Tiemblo (Reuters)<\/p>\n

Francisco Mart\u00edn, the central government representative for the region of Madrid, said that 20,000 people had been ordered to shelter at home in towns west of the capital.<\/p>\n

Mr Mart\u00edn said more evacuations could be coming and that the priority now was to protect the town of San Lorenzo, the home of the Escorial, Philip II’s 16th-century royal palace and monastery.<\/p>\n

Both Spain and France have triggered an EU emergency mechanism that allows for cooperation between member states when disasters occur.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe burnt landscape amid a wildfire in Fresnedillas area, near El Escorial (AFP\/Getty)<\/p>\n

The EU has sent planes and helicopters to both countries to help fight the fires, EU Commissioner for crisis management Hadja Lahbib told the BBC on Saturday.<\/p>\n

An expert had been sent to France to help coordinate firefighting efforts on the ground, while the EU had also activated satellites, she said.<\/p>\n

The disaster has been made particularly challenging due to the fact that the fires are happening \u201csimultaneously\u201d and in areas with \u201clots of tourists\u201d, Ms Lahbib told the BBC.<\/p>\n

\"WildfiresWildfires advance near Le Proge region, western France (AP)\"AA seaplane drops water onto a wildfire near La Adrada, \u00c1vila province (AP)\"AA fire truck in a burnt landscape near El Escorial (AFP\/Getty)\"AA firefighter sprays water in a burning forest in the L\u00e8ge-Cap-Ferret region, western France (AP)\"LargeLarge areas of the countryside near El Escorial have burnt (AFP\/Getty)\"FirefightersFirefighters worked through the night in Fresnedillas, Spain (AFP\/Getty)\"SmokeSmoke emanating from the wildfire north of the Arcachon basin, near Lege-Cap-Ferret, southwestern France (AFP\/Getty)\"ErraticErratic winds threaten to fan the flames further (AFP\/Getty)\"AA water bomber drops water while fighting wildfires in Ares, western France (AP)\"FirefightersFirefighters work in the smoke in Lanton, in France’s Lege-Cap-Ferret region (AP)\"FirefightersFirefighters battle a wildfire in Spain’s Zarzalejo area (AFP\/Getty)\"SmokeSmoke is seen billowing from the French fires (AFP\/Getty)\"ResidentsResidents watch the flames on hill crests as firefighters battle a wildfire in Cebreros area, near Avila (AFP\/Getty)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":56776,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[5,8614],"class_list":["post-56775","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-france","tag-france","tag-horizontal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56775","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56775"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56775\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/56776"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56775"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56775"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56775"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}