wildfires<\/a> in France and Spain that had come dangerously close to the cities of Bordeaux and Madrid appears to be slowing, authorities say, but they are bracing for yet another stifling heatwave this week, which could fan the flames of current blazes and ignite new ones.<\/p>\nNearly 4,000 people were evacuated from tourist sites in the Lacanau area of the Gironde region in southwestern France on Tuesday, bringing the total number who have fled Gironde to well over a quarter of a million. The wine-growing region, which includes the historic city of Bordeaux is the worst affected in France by the wildfires<\/p>\n
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\u201cWe are at a point of fragility,\u201d Eric Brocardi, spokesperson for France\u2019s national firefighters federation, told BFMTV on Tuesday. \u201cWe will continue attacking this fire despite the forecast rise in temperatures.\u201d<\/p>\n
Images posted by the French newspaper Le Figaro showed ash on a beach in Lacanau. Sophie Brocas, Gironde\u2019s prefect, has banned all sporting and cultural events until August 8.<\/p>\n
France\u2019s fourth heatwave of 2026 is expected to begin on Tuesday as temperatures are forecast to reach as high as 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) in the coming days. When the heatwave reaches Spain on Wednesday, temperatures are expected to be even hotter there.<\/p>\n
In Spain, 116,000 people have had to leave their homes since the wildfires began, but some have since been able to return. In the central province of Toledo, people from nine of 11 evacuated towns were allowed to go back to their homes on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska said people \u201ccan be a little more at ease\u201d after progress overnight in tackling the many blazes in the country, which are mostly concentrated in central Spain.<\/p>\n
Firefighters are also dealing with blazes in the neighbouring provinces of Avila and Toledo. About 800sq km (310sq miles) of land have burned.<\/p>\n
One Spanish evacuee from the east of the country told the Reuters news agency he had witnessed \u201ctotal chaos\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was like in the movies where hell cracked the ground open, and you see the red hell.\u201d<\/p>\n
The scorching heat has renewed concerns about climate change with Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez describing the fires as \u201cthe most painful expression of a climate emergency\u201d.<\/p>\n
Sanchez said authorities are beginning \u201cto see the light at the end of the tunnel in the fight against wildfires\u201d but cautioned that the upcoming heatwave still has to be dealt with.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Both countries expect to see temperatures soar into Wednesday, which could cause the blazes to spread. Published On…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":62085,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1810,8929,197,66,333,556,2249,273,17,3829],"class_list":["post-62084","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-spain","tag-climate","tag-climate-crisis","tag-environment","tag-europe","tag-european-union","tag-france","tag-humanitarian-crises","tag-news","tag-spain","tag-weather"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62084","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=62084"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62084\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/62085"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62084"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=62084"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=62084"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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