French authorities have ordered the evacuation of almost 60,000 people near Bordeaux, pushing the total number of people forced to flee wildfires across France and Spain past 220,000.
Around 200,000 people have already been evacuated in southwest France’s Gironde and Landes regions, with President Emmanuel Macron mobilizing the military to support the response. Meanwhile, a fire west of Madrid has grown “beyond the capacity” of firefighters to contain, Spanish officials warned, after three separate blazes merged into one.
Spain Declares National Emergency
Spain’s government has declared a national emergency, with 25,000 people ordered to evacuate and nearly 40,000 told to shelter indoors. Madrid’s regional president, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, called it the “worst fire in the history of the region,” describing a “perfect storm” of high temperatures, relentless wind, and merging fire fronts.
Local emergency services said the flames were advancing toward Robledo de Chavela and Fresnedillas de la Oliva, roughly 50km from the capital. “The wildfire is at its peak and is currently beyond the capacity of firefighters to contain,” said Carlos Novillo, the Madrid region’s emergency management chief, adding that only defensive measures remain possible in that area. The Military Emergency Unit has been deployed, focused primarily on protecting the town of El Escorial, while officials also monitor a separate blaze in nearby Ávila province, fearing it could merge with the Madrid fire. Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska said authorities were doing “everything we can” to prevent that from happening.
Francisco Martín, the government delegate in Madrid, warned the evacuation numbers could still rise, since “embers are flying for miles and the fire is jumping great distances.” The mayor of El Tiemblo in Ávila described flames travelling roughly 20km from Navaluenga to the Iruelas Valley in under half an hour, calling the scene “horrific.” At least 6,000 hectares have burned in the Madrid region, with the Ávila blaze consuming nearly 9,000 hectares. Eight municipalities have been evacuated, including Chapinería, Navas del Rey, and Robledo de Chavela, while several nearby towns remain under lockdown.
Among those forced to flee was 86-year-old Ecologio Cabrera, who described the fire’s speed from a shelter in Vilamanta: “If you don’t run from it and you try to face it, it devours you.” Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez is expected to visit the region’s emergency coordination center Saturday morning after warning Friday that people were “living through a dramatic situation.” The Civil Guard has arrested one person and is investigating another over the Ávila fire, which officials believe may have been caused by negligence involving heavy machinery during a period of restrictions.
France Battles an “XXL” Fire Near Bordeaux
In south-west France, roughly 200,000 people have been evacuated from the Gironde and Landes regions. Early Saturday, four towns near Bordeaux, home to a combined 58,400 residents, were evacuated as a precaution. The Gironde blaze, described by local prefect Sophie Brocas as an “XXL fire,” has burned more than 19,000 hectares and destroyed around 80 homes. The entire Cap Ferret peninsula was evacuated, with hundreds escaping by boat as flames swept through the popular coastal destination.
Fire and rescue chief Marc Vermeulen said conditions were worse than during the region’s devastating 2022 fires, with drought allowing the blaze to keep spreading overnight. Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez told broadcaster TF1 that France had “never seen a convective fire of this magnitude,” noting around 50 firefighters had been injured and that the self-sustaining blaze was shifting direction, moving east toward Bordeaux by Friday evening.
Further south, a separate fire near Biscarrosse in the Landes region forced more than 23,000 people to evacuate homes, campsites, a nursing home, and a summer camp. Landes prefect Gilles Clavreul said the fire would not be extinguished by the end of Friday, with winds reaching 50km/h and temperatures near 36-37°C. Lège-Cap Ferret mayor Philippe de Gonneville said the region had faced extreme, rainless weather for a month and a half. “It’s unheard of,” he said. “Neither we nor the firefighters have seen anything like it.”
Macron described the wildfire situation as “very tense,” particularly in Gironde, and said France has activated the EU’s civil protection mechanism, with reinforcements including two Black Hawk helicopters arriving from the Czech Republic and Slovakia. The government is holding an emergency meeting Saturday morning.
A Wider European Pattern
The EU has deployed aircraft and helicopters to support firefighting efforts in both countries as much of southern Europe contends with repeated heatwaves and prolonged drought. Italy has also reported wildfires this week, with Sicily among the worst-hit areas after a firefighter died battling the blaze there.
According to the EU’s Copernicus Climate Change Service, Europe is warming more than twice as fast as the global average since the 1980s, leaving vegetation drier and more flammable. Wildfires have already burned more land across Europe this year than the annual average of the past two decades, per the European Forest Fire Information System, with the European Environment Agency warning that climate change has broadly increased forest fire risk across the continent, particularly in the south.
