{"id":1112138,"date":"2026-07-26T10:34:15","date_gmt":"2026-07-26T10:34:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1112138\/"},"modified":"2026-07-26T10:34:15","modified_gmt":"2026-07-26T10:34:15","slug":"more-than-280000-moved-to-safety-as-wildfires-rage-in-france-and-spain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1112138\/","title":{"rendered":"More than 280,000 moved to safety as wildfires rage in France and Spain"},"content":{"rendered":"

More than 250,000 people have been evacuated from towns and villages in Spain<\/a> and France as fast-moving wildfires<\/a> spread towards areas near Madrid and Bordeaux, authorities said.<\/p>\n

In France<\/a>, officials ordered the evacuation of western suburbs of Bordeaux on Saturday as fires continued to rage across the Gironde region. Interior Minister Laurent Nunez said about 197,000 people had already been evacuated from Gironde and surrounding areas, with authorities later ordering another 55,000 residents to leave.<\/p>\n

Nearly 98,000 hectares have been burnt nationwide, a record for France, according to the minister.<\/p>\n

Although higher overnight humidity reduced fire intensity in Gironde, Mr Nunez warned that efforts to bring the blazes under control would be “long and very difficult”.<\/p>\n

Gironde prefect Sophie Brocas urged residents to comply with evacuation orders, noting that more than 32,000 hectares had burned and 140 homes had been destroyed. “The fire is an ogre who can run very fast,” she said.<\/p>\n

Many evacuees have been housed in sports halls and other public facilities to protect them from heavy smoke.<\/p>\n

The Bordeaux region is famed for its vineyards, and the city is one of the main transport hubs for tourists visiting nearby holiday resorts on the Atlantic coast.<\/p>\n

The A63 motorway, a major route between Bordeaux and the north of Spain, was closed across a 60km stretch, and rail services south of the French city were suspended until further notice, according to the national railway operator SNCF.<\/p>\n

France sent 1,500 military personnel to assist emergency operations, while an Airbus A400M military transport aircraft joined firefighting efforts.<\/p>\n

Authorities also shortened the final stage of the Tour de France on Sunday to free up additional security personnel for wildfire operations.<\/p>\n

In Spain, about 30,000 people were evacuated across Avila province and areas west of Madrid, adding to tens of thousands already evacuated or advised to remain indoors. Officials warned that two major fires burning west of the capital could eventually merge.<\/p>\n

Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez<\/a>, speaking from the affected area near Cenicientos, said authorities were focused on protecting lives and populated areas, warning that strong, unpredictable winds could worsen conditions.<\/p>\n

Smoke reached Madrid, where air-quality monitors recorded a sharp deterioration, particularly in western districts.<\/p>\n

More than 16,000 people were evacuated after a new blaze erupted near Valencia in Spain’s eastern Vall d\u2019Uixo region on Saturday ; by the evening it was \u201cabsolutely out of control,\u201d according to Spain\u2019s Science Minister Diana Moran.<\/p>\n

Firefighters found an elderly man dead in a car on Saturday in Manises, in the Valencia area, as they brought a small blaze under control. So far, no casualties have been reported from the large fires that are raging elsewhere near Madrid and Valencia. <\/p>\n

Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, said EU firefighting resources had been deployed to both countries, including aircraft from the bloc\u2019s disaster response fleet and emergency mapping support through the Copernicus programme.<\/p>\n

The fires are among the most severe in a wildfire season that began unusually early and has been intensified by repeated heatwaves and drought. In Spain alone, about 140,000 hectares have burned so far this year \u2013 more than three times the average for the past two decades.<\/p>\n

Climate scientists say climate change<\/a> is increasing the frequency and intensity of extreme heat across Europe, creating conditions that allow wildfires to spread more rapidly and over larger areas.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"More than 250,000 people have been evacuated from towns and villages in Spain and France as fast-moving wildfires…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1112139,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5309],"tags":[2000,299,74087,36,1715,1426],"class_list":["post-1112138","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-france","tag-eu","tag-europe","tag-foreign-desk-team","tag-france","tag-standard","tag-story"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1112138","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1112138"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1112138\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1112139"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1112138"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1112138"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1112138"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}