France and Spain have ordered mass evacuations as devastating wildfires continue to spread across both countries, forcing tens of thousands of residents and tourists to flee while firefighters battle multiple blazes intensified by extreme heat, drought and strong winds.
According to BBC, French authorities evacuated the entire Cap Ferret peninsula on the Atlantic coast, with many residents escaping by boat. Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez said about 40,000 people had either been evacuated or were in the process of leaving the peninsula.
The fires, which began on Tuesday, have already consumed about 10,000 hectares in the Gironde region. Local prefect Sophie Brocas said 53 homes and a campsite had been destroyed, while 2,000 houses were saved.
Fire and rescue chief Marc Vermeulen said the wildfire spread rapidly overnight, forcing authorities to evacuate the town of Arès on Friday morning.
Vermeulen compared the current fires with those of 2022, warning that worsening drought had made conditions more severe.
“When I say explosion, it means that for several hours, we had propagation speeds on the order of 800 to 1,000 hectares burned per hour, in the context of a suburban area.”
Further south in France’s Landes region, another wildfire near Biscarrosse forced more than 23,000 people to evacuate, including residents, campers and nursing home occupants.
Prefect Gilles Clavreul said the blaze was unlikely to be contained by Friday due to strong winds and temperatures reaching 36–37C. At least 105 homes and buildings have been partially or completely destroyed.
No additional casualties were reported overnight, although two firefighters died on Tuesday while tackling a blaze near Bordeaux airport.
French President Emmanuel Macron described the wildfire situation as “very tense”, particularly in the Gironde region.
The European Union has deployed three planes and two helicopters to France, with another four aircraft sent to Spain.
In Spain, the government declared a national emergency after wildfires raged across areas west of Madrid, prompting the evacuation of more than 19,000 people.
Madrid regional president Isabel Díaz Ayuso described it as “The worst fire in the history of the region.”
Speaking from an emergency command post in Cenicientos, she said the region faced a “perfect storm” of extreme heat, strong winds and multiple merging fire fronts.
“The situation is completely unusual and catastrophic,” she said, adding that the priority was saving lives.
Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez described the situation as “dramatic” and urged residents to exercise caution, saying forest fires were “ravaging thousands of hectares” across several communities.
Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska said about 9,000 hectares had burned in Ávila and another 3,000 hectares in the Madrid region after separate fires merged.
Scientists say Europe, the world’s fastest-warming continent, is experiencing hotter, drier summers due to climate change, creating ideal conditions for increasingly destructive wildfires.
