Key facts
- Wildfires are causing mass evacuations in France and Spain.
- Over 110,000 people have been evacuated in France, with fires near Bordeaux and Cap Ferret.
- Spain has declared a national emergency and deployed military units to combat wildfires.
- Tens of thousands have been displaced in Spain, particularly in the Madrid and Ávila regions.
- France has requested international aerial support through the EU Civil Protection Mechanism.
Wildfires are raging across southwestern France and central Spain, forcing massive evacuations and prompting military intervention in both nations.
In France, a massive wildfire has reached the outskirts of Bordeaux, raising the total number of people evacuated across surrounding areas to 110,000. Earlier, tens of thousands of residents fled as wildfires swept through the tourist peninsula of Cap Ferret on the Atlantic coast. The French Prime Minister has requested army support to assist firefighters on the ground. The main blaze, active since Wednesday near Cap Ferret, has consumed 125 square kilometers. Around 1,500 people escaped the peninsula by sea, arriving in Arcachon aboard water taxis and ferries. In total, 44,000 people were evacuated in the Gironde department, where 53 homes and a campsite were destroyed and 42 firefighters injured, while 23,000 were evacuated in the neighbouring Landes department due to an uncontained 25-square-kilometer blaze further south. French Interior Minister Laurent Nunez stated that France has 32 active wildfires, with over 50,000 hectares burned since January, nearly triple last year's total.
In Spain, the government declared a national emergency for wildfires for the first time. The Minister of the Interior has assumed direct coordination of all firefighting resources, with the Military Emergency Unit taking charge of operations on the ground as a heatwave brings temperatures above 39°C and high winds have fanned multiple blazes. Two major fires west of Madrid merged into a single blaze, charring 30 square kilometers and prompting the evacuation of 18,000 people. Nearby in Ávila, a blaze consumed 90 square kilometers, forcing 1,500 people to flee. Authorities later ordered the evacuation of 7,000 more people from two new localities west of Madrid. In total, around 60,000 people in the Madrid and Ávila areas have been evacuated or told to remain indoors. Meanwhile, the La Mierla fire in Guadalajara—the largest in Spain, which has scorched 32,000 hectares—has finally begun to subside. The total burned area across Spain has doubled in just two weeks, approaching 120,000 hectares so far this year. Spanish police arrested one man in Castilla y León for starting a fire using farm machinery during a ban, with a second person under investigation.
Both nations have requested European Union assistance. France will receive aerial reinforcements from Croatia, Portugal, the Czech Republic, and Slovakia. Spain is receiving four water-dumping aircraft.