{"id":1116601,"date":"2026-07-28T18:57:19","date_gmt":"2026-07-28T18:57:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1116601\/"},"modified":"2026-07-28T18:57:19","modified_gmt":"2026-07-28T18:57:19","slug":"france-and-spain-wildfires-more-evacuations-as-fires-displace-a-third-of-a-million","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1116601\/","title":{"rendered":"France and Spain wildfires: More evacuations as fires displace a third of a million"},"content":{"rendered":"

LEGE-CAP FERRET, France (AP) \u2014 French authorities ordered 4,000 more people evacuated from tourist sites along its Atlantic coast<\/a> on Tuesday, widening what may be France\u2019s largest peacetime evacuation as returning heat threatened firefighters\u2019 fragile hold on a vast wildfire west of Bordeaux<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Fresh flames erupted later Tuesday near Grand Crohot, a popular Atlantic beach on the L\u00e8ge-Cap-Ferret peninsula, local authorities said. A fleet of 23 planes and helicopters \u2014 up from 18 \u2014 dropped water and fire retardant as crews fought to keep the renewed flames from spreading.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe situation remains complicated. That\u2019s clear. We\u2019re not out of the woods,\u201d Gironde prefect Sophie Brocas said.<\/p>\n

She said that about 60,000 residents who were evacuated as a precaution from Le Haillan and parts of M\u00e9rignac and Eysines outside Bordeaux\u2019s ring road could return on Tuesday. No fires had broken out in the three areas, but residents were told to keep their mobile phones on and emergency bags packed.<\/p>\n

The opposing movements \u2014 thousands ordered out of coastal resorts while those returning told to be on the alert \u2014 underscored how precarious the fire\u2019s hold remained.<\/p>\n

Across France and Spain, roughly 330,000 people have been driven from homes and vacation sites by huge wildfires. Spain braced for its fourth heat wave of the summer, with several blazes still burning out of control, including the largest in its recorded history.<\/p>\n

Even so, Spanish authorities began lifting evacuation and stay-at-home orders for thousands of people after firefighters made progress overnight.<\/p>\n

The Gironde fire has burned an area four times the size of Paris and forced 220,000 people to evacuate. Interior Minister Laurent Nu\u00f1ez has said it is \u201cvery likely\u201d the largest civilian evacuation operation carried out in the country outside war.<\/p>\n

Evacuations don\u2019t deter some vacationers<\/p>\n

The precautionary evacuation order covered campsites, holiday villages, tourist residences and leisure parks around the resort of Lacanau, Gironde regional authorities said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are at a point of fragility,\u201d Eric Brocardi, spokesperson for France\u2019s national firefighters federation, told the BFMTV broadcast network Tuesday. \u201cWe will continue attacking this fire despite the forecast rise in temperatures.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even as nearby homes burned and authorities urged tourists to stay away, one family told Le Parisien newspaper it had gone ahead with its trip rather than forfeit a 4,000-euro ($4,558) holiday, while another group debated abandoning a vacation that had cost 650 euros ($741) each.<\/p>\n

A fire making its own weather<\/p>\n

At its most violent, the Gironde blaze created a gargantuan black thundercloud<\/a>, electrified and lit from within. It generated lightning, violent winds and new fires beyond the original front. The phenomenon, known as a pyrocumulonimbus cloud, was the first recorded in France.<\/p>\n

France\u2019s national weather service placed Gironde under a yellow heat warning beginning at midday Tuesday, forecasting inland temperatures of 33 to 35 C (91 to 95 F). <\/p>\n

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More than 1,160 square kilometers (448 square miles) have burned across France this year, according to the Interior Ministry. <\/p>\n

Europe is the world\u2019s fastest-warming continent, heating at more than twice the global average, according to the European Union\u2019s Copernicus climate service. Western Europe recorded its hottest June on record, with extreme heat and widespread dryness contributing to the spread and intensification of fires in France and Spain, Copernicus said.<\/p>\n

Crews defend homes and cut firebreaks<\/p>\n

In Le Porge alone, west of Bordeaux, the municipal government said about 150 homes were destroyed.<\/p>\n

Officials warned that smoldering vegetation, rising temperatures and falling humidity could produce fresh outbreaks along the fire\u2019s vast perimeter.<\/p>\n

Military engineers and forest-fire prevention crews resumed cutting firebreaks early Tuesday. Authorities said crews had completed 103 kilometers (64 miles) of firebreaks.<\/p>\n

At least 110 firefighters have been injured, the prefecture said.<\/p>\n

Thousands return as second fire stops advancing<\/p>\n

In Landes, about 15,000 evacuees \u2014 roughly half of those displaced here \u2014 were allowed home after a separate wildfire stopped advancing.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe fire is fixed, which is good news in the Landes,\u201d French President Emmanuel Macron<\/a> said Monday evening. Regional authorities said that meant its advance had stopped and no new outbreaks had been reported.<\/p>\n

Those allowed back included residents of Sanguinet, Parentis-en-Born, Biscarrosse\u2019s aviation village and a large campground. Several other neighborhoods remained inaccessible.<\/p>\n

Authorities warned that the Landes fire was not extinguished. Residual hot spots, wind and drought could cause flare-ups, and surveillance and damping-down operations were expected to continue for days or weeks.<\/p>\n

Thousands begin returning in Spain<\/p>\n

Spanish firefighters made progress Tuesday, and authorities began lifting evacuation orders for at least 20,000 of the 79,000 people<\/a> forced to flee over the weekend.<\/p>\n

Francisco Mart\u00edn, the central government\u2019s representative in the Madrid region, said orders would be lifted in 10 towns, allowing about 20,000 evacuees to return home and ending stay-at-home orders for another 14,000 people.<\/p>\n

Residents of some villages in \u00c1vila were also being allowed home, though authorities did not specify how many. Another 6,000 people could return after a smaller fire near Toledo was brought under control, while several thousand more went home in Castell\u00f3n.<\/p>\n

Hundreds of firefighters backed by military emergency brigades<\/a> and water-dropping aircraft continued battling several major wildfires.<\/p>\n

Smoke from the fires reached Madrid in recent days. Emergency services said residents in central and eastern districts could smell smoke and ash.<\/p>\n

Spanish Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska said Tuesday that nonstop work through the night left him \u201creasonably positive,\u201d though officials warned that crews had only a brief window before extreme heat returned.<\/p>\n

Spain\u2019s national weather service said the country was bracing for its fourth heat wave of the summer, with temperatures expected to exceed 40 C (104 F) in some areas. <\/p>\n

The government declared a national emergency over the fires.<\/p>\n

At least 13 people have died in wildfires in Spain this year, making 2026 one of the country\u2019s deadliest fire seasons in decades.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been living in San Mart\u00edn de Valdeiglesias for 20 years and I never thought I would see this,\u201d said Estella Costales, an evacuated resident staying at a temporary shelter in Brunete, near Madrid. \u201cIt\u2019s unfortunate, but I never thought I would see such destruction.\u201d<\/p>\n

Surroundings of Madrid remain at risk<\/p>\n

The greatest concern was two large fires that had at times come close to merging into a single blaze in wooded hills about an hour\u2019s drive west of Madrid. <\/p>\n

A fire in hilly, rural terrain in \u00c1vila, west of Madrid<\/a>, has become Spain\u2019s largest on record, scorching more than 500 square kilometers (193 square miles), the government said. <\/p>\n

Local weather services in \u00c1vila also shared images Tuesday of what they described as a pyrocumulonimbus cloud over the blaze. Spain has seen these fire-generated thunderstorms form at least twice during wildfires in recent years.<\/p>\n

\u201cLook at how the valley is burned. Look at the houses, the people,\u201d said David Gonzalez, a 48-year-old gardener who used his van to deliver supplies to firefighters in \u00c1vila.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are feeling a lot of anger and helplessness. It\u2019s something inhuman,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Fires have burned 1,530 square kilometers (590 square miles) this year in Spain, Ecology Minister Sara Aagesen said. <\/p>\n

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro S\u00e1nchez has called for a national pact to fight wildfires, saying climate change is making them worse<\/a>.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Adamson reported from Paris. Associated Press journalists Joseph Wilson in Barcelona, Spain, and Iain Sullivan in Brunete, Spain, also contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LEGE-CAP FERRET, France (AP) \u2014 French authorities ordered 4,000 more people evacuated from tourist sites along its Atlantic…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1116602,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5312],"tags":[7029,8616,304360,34,304359,304357,2000,5215,299,63917,121783,12264,36,16831,302626,4179,33150,304358,5479,11052,5338,238670,302624,104,7685,741,732,263],"class_list":["post-1116601","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-spain","tag-climate","tag-climate-and-environment","tag-david-gonzalez","tag-emmanuel-macron","tag-eric-brocardi","tag-estella-costales","tag-eu","tag-eurocopa-2024","tag-europe","tag-evacuations","tag-fernando-grande-marlaska","tag-fires","tag-france","tag-france-government","tag-francisco-martn","tag-general-news","tag-heat-waves","tag-laurent-nuez","tag-madrid","tag-natural-disasters","tag-pedro-sanchez","tag-sara-aagesen","tag-sophie-brocas","tag-spain","tag-spain-government","tag-weather","tag-wildfires","tag-world-news"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116999136645048975","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1116601","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=1116601"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1116601\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1116602"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1116601"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1116601"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1116601"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}