Wildfires: More than 200,000 people flee or lock down as blazes sweep France and Spain

More than 200,000 people have fled or been ordered to lock down as huge wildfires swept Spain and France, prompting Madrid to declare a national emergency and the French authorities to order the total evacuation, by land and sea, of one of the country’s best-known holiday spots.Authorities in south-west France ordered the Cap Ferret peninsula on the Atlantic coast to be evacuated “village by village” in the face of an “intense, highly unpredictable” wildfire that had burned through more than 19,000 hectares (47,000 acres) of forest by Friday.French authorities evacuated thousands ‌of people from suburbs near Bordeaux on Saturday as wildfires ‌in areas around the city showed no signs of ​abating.Sophie Brocas, who heads the local administration of La Nouvelle-Aquitaine et de la Gironde which covers the ​Bordeaux region, said on X that the areas of Le ⁠Haillan, Eysines and Merignac were being cleared ‌out.READ MOREFrench ‌Prime ​Minister Sebastien Lecornu said that more than 141,000 people had so far ⁠been evacuated ​from the Gironde and Landes ​regions which lie close to Bordeaux, ‌and where the wildfires first broke ​out this week.“The fires which are ⁠hitting our country ⁠have ​reached a level that has never been seen before,” Lecornu wrote on X on Saturday. The French army has also been drafted in to help.Spain’s government declared its first national emergency for a wildfire as two large blazes merged into one outside Madrid and a third was on the verge of joining them, amid searing heat and tinder-dry conditions across much of southern Europe.Both countries sought European Union help. “This is the worst wildfire in our region’s history,” said Madrid’s regional leader, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, describing “an unprecedented situation: a perfect storm of extremely high temperatures and relentless winds”.More than 110,000 people had been evacuated in two days to escape the Cap Ferret fire, the Gironde prefecture said, including thousands of holidaymakers in campsites and rental homes.Boats ferried hundreds off piers on the peninsula on Friday as the blaze threatened to cut off the only access road.Scientists say climate breakdown is triggering more frequent and more extreme weather events, evaporating soils and waterways, fuelling wildfires and leading to thousands of excess deaths. Europe is heating at about twice the global average rate.About 800 firefighters and four water-bombing planes were battling the Gironde blaze north of Arcachon Bay, but the fire, which began on Wednesday near the village of Saumos 40km west of Bordeaux, was not yet stabilised.Numerous roads in the area, including those leading to Cap Ferret, which contains many villas owned by celebrities and millionaires, were closed to all but essential traffic. Eighty houses had burned.Smoke rises over a pine forest in Cap Ferret, in southwestern France. Photograph: EPA A volunteer gives indication to holidaymakers from Cap-Ferret upon their arrival in Arcachon by boat during an evacuation operation. Photograph: Romain Perrocheau/AFP/Getty Images A wildfire near Lege-Cap-Ferret, southwestern France. Photograph: Julien de Rosa/AFP/Getty Images “I’ve seen plenty of fires before, but never one of this intensity,” Jean Mazodier (86), who owns 150 hectares of forest and was evacuated from his home at 6am on Friday, told Le Monde. “Everything’s burned. It’s like losing a child.”A second fire raging in the region, farther south near the popular holiday resort of Biscarrosse, had also burned through more than 2,500 hectares, the Landes prefect, Gilles Clavreul, said on Friday, and led to the evacuation of about 31,000 people.More than 600 firefighters were struggling to contain that blaze, Clavreul said.“ There are a great many new fire starts ahead of the main blaze. The situation is highly dynamic and unfavourable,” he added.In 2022, a wildfire burned more than 30,000 hectares in France’s south-west, forcing 50,000 evacuations. In parched conditions and fanned by strong winds, the two latest blazes have torn through coastal pine forests with flames up to 10 metres high.France’s president, ​Emmanuel Macron, said he had activated the EU’s civil protection mechanism as the country, which has endured three almost back-to-back heatwaves since May, battled numerous wildfires.“We will soon be able to count ‌on reinforcements from two Croatian aircraft, two Portuguese planes, as well as two heavy helicopters from the Czech Republic and Slovakia,” Macron said.France’s interior minister, Laurent Nuñez, said on Friday that 32 wildfires were burning, with 50,000 hectares scorched already so far this year – nearly four times the total by the same date last year.About 800 firefighters were battling a blaze in the south-eastern Var area, where weather conditions were improving, Nuñez said, allowing some firefighting resources to be redeployed to the south-west.The severity of fires in the EU has broken records for the time of year, data from the European Forest Fire Information System shows.Spain’s government declared a national emergency on Thursday evening after wildfires ⁠threatened areas near the capital and in the neighbouring province of Ávila, leading to the evacuation or confinement of more than 63,000 people.Smoke and flames rise as a wildfire advances near Burgohondo in Spain. Photograph: Manu Fernandez/AP Smoke and flames rise as a wildfire advances near San Martin de Valdeiglesias, Avila province, Spain. Photograph: Manu Fernandez/AP A national emergency, which allows central government to assume overall control of powers and responsibilities that are usually the domain of Spain’s self-governing regions, has only been declared once before, during the countrywide blackout of April 2025.The regional government of Madrid requested assistance, describing the situation as one of “extreme gravity”. It said at least four active fires could advance “beyond current extinguishing capacity”. The fires remained uncontained on Friday.Spanish authorities said on Friday afternoon there was “very little time left” before the blaze in Madrid, already made up of two merged fires, combined with the Ávila fire.On Friday night, Madrid’s regional environment minister, Carlos Novillo, said the fire had reached “a critical moment” and was “beyond our extinguishing capability”. He added: “The priority at the moment is protecting people, helping those who have been evacuated, and making the most of windows of opportunity.”José Cobos, who fled his home about 50km south-west of Madrid on Friday morning with his wife and three dogs, told Antena 3 television: “The smoke was incredibly thick. You couldn’t breathe.”Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, chaired an emergency response meeting at the Moncloa palace on Friday morning as the state meteorological office warned that the danger of more fires remained very high.He said the government had deployed “all available resources”, adding: “It will be by your side during the emergency and the recovery.”The prime minister also thanked “all the emergency services that are fighting day and night”. Sánchez is due to visit the affected area on Saturday morning.On Friday morning, Spain’s environment ministry said 29 big forest fires had been recorded so far in 2026, compared with an annual average of nine between January and the end of July per year over the past decade. Forest fires had burned about 114,796 hectares, compared with 25,133 by the same time last year.Spain’s interior ministry has also requested fire-fighting aircraft through the EU’s civil protection mechanism, which aims to strengthen civil protection cooperation between EU countries and 10 additional participating states.Spain’s Guardia Civil force, which polices rural areas, said late on Friday that one man had been arrested and another was under investigation in connection with the forest fire in the Burgohondo municipality of Ávila. It said the two suspects had apparently ignored a ban on the use of heavy machinery, thereby creating “sparks … that may have caused the fire”. – Guardian