battled another fire<\/a> in a mountainous district of France’s southeastern Drome department.<\/p>\n![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/989486179602e221280fe724f159ac38.jpeg\"\/)
<\/p>\n
The wildfire in the Pyrenees broke out on Saturday, turning the skyline orangeCastoldi Isabelle\/ABACAPRESS\/IMAGO<\/p>\n
Portugal calls in reinforcements from Spain, Italy<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, a wildfire burning since Thursday in central Portugal’s Vouzela area has scorched an area of 12,000 hectares (30,000 acres), according to the country’s Civil Protection authority.<\/p>\n
More than 1,200 firefighters have been working to put out the blaze, along with nearly 400 vehicles and 15 aircraft.<\/p>\n
By Sunday afternoon, the fire had been somewhat contained, with officials cited in local media as saying that some hot spots remained.<\/p>\n
Spain sent reinforcement personnel and vehicles to Portugal on Friday, along with two water bombers. Italy also sent two firefighting aircraft.<\/p>\n
Thousands evacuated as Spain fire rages<\/p>\n
In Spain’s northeastern Girona region, a wildfire burning since Friday ruined nearly 2,200 hectares (5,400 acres) of land, the EFE news agency reported.<\/p>\n
A local fire official said it may not be possible to bring the blaze under control on Sunday.<\/p>\n
Almost 50,000 people living nearby were ordered to remain indoors or were evacuated, local media reported.<\/p>\n
A man was detained on suspicion of accidentally starting the fire while using an angle grinder for roadside work.<\/p>\n
![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/ae1e79a19f01c7941360c24ab85ccff1.jpeg\"\/)
<\/p>\n
The wildfire broke out near Space’s Costa Brava, which is already busy with touristsLorena Sop\u00eana\/Europa Press\/IMAGO<\/p>\n
Greece fires felt near Athens, Thessaloniki<\/p>\n
In Greece, a major wildfire broke out on Sunday afternoon west of the capital, Athens.<\/p>\n
The blaze was reported to be burning through pine forest in the Mandra area.<\/p>\n
Officials said more than 150 firefighters and 22 aircraft were battling the fire, along with specialist teams and volunteers.<\/p>\n
In parts of Thessaloniki, Greece’s second-largest city, residents were ordered to stay home with their windows and doors closed after a recycling plant was engulfed by a wildfire and produced toxic smoke.<\/p>\n
Police arrested a 76-year-old man on suspicion of having started the blaze by generating sparks with his vehicle that set vegetation alight, the fire department said.<\/p>\n
Major fires were also reported on the Croatian island of Hvar and at Tale in Albania.<\/p>\n
![\"Greece](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/49e6da4689ecc3916e05154fb82320a4.jpeg\"\/)
<\/p>\n
Greece is still reeling from last year’s deadly wildfires amid record temperaturesGiannis Papanikos\/AP Photo\/picture alliance<\/p>\n
EU steps up cross-border support<\/p>\n
Wildfires have intensified across southern Europe in recent years, with longer fire seasons and larger areas burned.<\/p>\n
The latest blazes come after much of Europe was hit by an early summer heatwave<\/a>.<\/p>\nThe European Union has stepped up efforts to prepare for the wildfire season, with the European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, making its largest-ever deployment of emergency crews from 14 countries.<\/p>\n
The crews are pre-positioned in high-risk areas of Cyprus, Greece, Italy, France, Spain and Portugal, alongside water bombers.<\/p>\n
Edited by: Wesley Dockery<\/p>\n
Don’t let the algorithm hide the news. If you rely on our team for trusted reporting, please take a moment to select us as your Preferred Source on Google by clicking here and hitting the “star” or “preferred” button, so you’ll always see our verified news first.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Firefighters across southern Europe battled several wildfires on Sunday, with authorities in southwestern France warning that one blaze…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":50626,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[21975,556,797,1726,3217,17,22046,20399,22077],"class_list":["post-50625","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-spain","tag-firefighters","tag-france","tag-greece","tag-portugal","tag-southern-europe","tag-spain","tag-thessaloniki","tag-tour-de-france","tag-water-bombers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50625","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50625"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50625\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50626"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50625"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50625"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50625"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}