France ordered 4,000 additional evacuations on Tuesday as wildfires sweeping across southwestern Europe have now displaced more than 330,000 people from their homes, making it one of the worst fire seasons in the region’s recorded history.
The fires, concentrated in France’s Gironde region and across central Spain, have destroyed more than 260,000 hectares of land since the start of the year. French Interior Minister Laurent Nunez said about 115,000 hectares have burned in France alone, while Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez reported more than 150,000 hectares consumed in Spain – six times the area destroyed during the same period last year.
In France, the flames have pushed to within 15 kilometers of Bordeaux, a city of 850,000 people in the metropolitan area. Mayor Thomas Cazenave said the fire was not under control and moving toward the city. Authorities have moved 197,000 people from areas around Bordeaux, including popular holiday destinations crowded during the summer season.
Firefighters are battling what officials described as an unprecedented situation. A spokesman for France’s National Firefighters Federation told AFP that crews had reached a point of operational impossibility, requiring strategic retreat in the face of a natural force beyond their control.
The situation is further complicated by the formation of pyrocumulonimbus clouds – thunder clouds created by intense heat from fires. Scientists from the British Royal Meteorological Society warned these clouds can produce dry lightning that ignites spot fires away from the main blaze, and can carry burning embers for kilometers.
In Spain, a fast-moving wildfire in the Andalusia region killed at least 12 people on July 10. Fires have since spread hundreds of kilometers to the capital Madrid, where at least 10,000 people were evacuated. Spanish authorities declared a national emergency on July 24, describing two major blazes as out of control.
A separate fire in Spain’s eastern Castellon province has ravaged more than 4,300 hectares, with firefighters facing the added danger of unexploded ordnance from the Spanish Civil War buried in the ground that detonates when flames reach it.
Meteorologists warn that a fourth major heatwave is expected to hit the region starting Wednesday, with temperatures forecast to reach 40 degrees Celsius in parts of southwestern France. The extreme heat is expected to fan existing flames and could spark new fires across the parched landscape.
Scientists say Europe, the world’s fastest-warming continent, is primed for increasingly severe wildfire seasons. The 2025 fire season destroyed 2.2 million hectares across Europe, and current 2026 figures already outpace that trajectory.
Both France and Spain have appealed for international assistance, with officials acknowledging that firefighters alone cannot contain the blazes under current conditions. The fires have already disrupted major events, including the Tour de France finale, which was shortened after security forces were redeployed to fight the flames.
