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With wildfires raging in France and Spain, fire crews race against next heat wave
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A group hold a firehose and try to suppress a fire near Lacanau, as wildfires rage outside Bordeaux, France, Monday, July 27, 2026.
"Look at how the valley is burned.
It's something inhuman," he said.
Fires have burned 1,530 square kilometers (590 square miles) this year in Spain — six times the area scorched by blazes in the first half of 2025, said Sara Aagesen, the ecology minister.
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− Fresh Air Wild Card with Rachel Martin It's Been a Minute Embedded Get NPR+ More Podcasts & Shows Search Newsletters NPR Shop Get NPR+ Tiny Desk New Music Friday All Songs Considered Music Features Live Sessions About NPR Diversity Support Careers Press Ethics With wildfires raging in France and Spain, fire crews race against next heat wave French President Emmanuel Macron said France was "facing a completely unprecedented fire," describing the situation as France's worst fire-related crisis since World War II.
+ Fresh Air Wild Card with Rachel Martin It's Been a Minute Embedded Get NPR+ More Podcasts & Shows Search Newsletters NPR Shop Get NPR+ Tiny Desk New Music Friday All Songs Considered Music Features Live Sessions About NPR Diversity Support Careers Press Ethics With wildfires raging in France and Spain, fire crews race against next heat wave French authorities ordered nearly 4,000 people evacuated Tuesday from tourist sites on the Atlantic coast as returning heat threatened firefighters' fragile hold on a vast wildfire west of Bordeaux.
− Europe With wildfires raging in France and Spain, fire crews race against next heat wave July 28, 20262:25 AM ET By
The Associated Press
Firefighters tackle a blaze as wildfires rage near Le Las, outside Bordeaux, France, Monday, July 27, 2026.
+ Europe With wildfires raging in France and Spain, fire crews race against next heat wave Updated July 28, 20265:27 AM ET Originally published July 28, 20262:25 AM ET By
The Associated Press
Firefighters tackle a blaze as wildfires rage near Le Las, outside Bordeaux, France, Monday, July 27, 2026.
− Emma Da Silva/AP hide caption
LEGE-CAP FERRET, France — French President Emmanuel Macron urged fire crews to "stay strong" as they battled Monday to bring a monster wildfire under control, warning that the fight will take time but vowing, "We will win this battle together."
Europe France continues to fight devastating wildfires, while progress is made in Spain On a visit to a coordination center for the massive firefighting effort in southwest France, Macron heard how the blaze raging since last week has been wildly unpredictable, transforming at times into a self-feeding fire storm as it burned through an area four times the size of Paris and forced 220,000 people to flee their homes.
+ Emma Da Silva/AP hide caption
LEGE-CAP FERRET, France — French authorities ordered nearly 4,000 people evacuated Tuesday from tourist sites on the Atlantic coast as returning heat threatened firefighters' fragile hold on a vast wildfire west of Bordeaux.
− "We're facing a completely unprecedented fire," Macron said, describing the situation as France's worst fire-related crisis since World War II.
He praised firefighting teams who stopped the inferno's progression Monday after days of spreading flames that edged toward the wine region city of Bordeaux.
+ Europe France continues to fight devastating wildfires, while progress is made in Spain The new evacuations deepened a wildfire emergency of exceptional scale across southwestern Europe.
− But with woodlands still smoldering, he and other government officials cautioned that the battle isn't yet won, with forests turned tinder-dry by successive heat waves this year and another forecast for this week.
+ Fires in France and Spain have forced roughly 330,000 people to evacuate, while Spain entered its fourth heat wave of the summer with several blazes still out of control, including its largest on record.
− "The weeks ahead will be hard. We must hold firm," Macron said.
+ Firefighters had held the French blaze in check through a calm night, bringing flare-ups near coastal dunes under control and keeping the burned area unchanged at 420 square kilometers (162 square miles).
− With thousands of firefighters on the ground and rotations of water- and retardant-dropping aircraft, it became a race against time Monday to contain the blaze before temperatures soar, with national weather service forecasts of 35 C (95 F) and above in southwest France from Tuesday.
+ Authorities described the Gironde fire as stabilized, not fixed — meaning it could still spread again as temperatures rose and humidity fell.
− A statue stands in front of the remains of a house after wildfires raged in the village of Le Porge, on the Bay of Biscay, France, Monday, July 27, 2026.
+ The precautionary evacuation order covered campsites, holiday villages, tourist residences and leisure parks around the resort of Lacanau, including Lacanau Ocean and both shores of Lacanau lake, Gironde regional authorities said.
"We are at a point of fragility," Eric Brocardi, spokesperson for France's national firefighters federation, told BFMTV on Tuesday.
− Baz Ratner/AP hide caption
Authorities also are working to feed, shelter and care for evacuees who fled in staggering numbers: 250,000 in the southwest, driven away by two fires.
+ "We will continue attacking this fire despite the forecast rise in temperatures."
The blaze, raging since last week, has been wildly unpredictable, transforming at times into a self-feeding firestorm as it burned through an area four times the size of Paris and forced 220,000 people to evacuate homes and vacation accommodation.
− Macron spoke of displaced people "traumatized" by the upheaval and "who sometimes have lost everything."
No new evacuations were announced Monday.
+ Even after 24 hours without further advance, officials warned that smoldering vegetation, rising temperatures and falling humidity could produce fresh outbreaks along the vast perimeter.
Firefighters and military engineers resumed work early Tuesday on tactical firebreaks designed to prevent the flames from spreading.
− But with France about to enter its peak August tourist season, authorities for the Gironde region around Bordeaux worked to keep vacationers away, banning holiday camps for children and for people with disabilities. Government ministers also urged people not to travel to the region that is popular for its Atlantic beaches, famous wines and some of France's largest expanses of forests.
+ Authorities said 103 kilometers (64 miles) of firebreaks had been completed.
− Crews using earth movers tore up strips of forest and scrubland to create barren spaces, intended to block the flames that officials said had come within 15 kilometers (10 miles) of Bordeaux's outskirts.
+ A statue stands in front of the remains of a house after wildfires raged in the village of Le Porge, on the Bay of Biscay, France, Monday, July 27, 2026.
− Farmers kept fire crews supplied with water, transporting it to them in tanks.
+ Baz Ratner/AP hide caption
Ninety-three firefighters have been injured while battling the blaze, the prefecture said.
− Briefing Macron, the Gironde region's fire chief explained how crews had wrestled with the blaze unlike any they'd previously tackled, extraordinarily virulent and capricious, "a fire that's going everywhere" and which generated electrical storms that sparked more flare-ups.
+ The A63 highway remained partly closed, while rail traffic south of Bordeaux was suspended except on the route toward Toulouse.
− "The last 24 hours went well, thanks to your work" Macron told firefighters.
+ The overnight holding action in Gironde contrasted with a clearer sign of progress in neighboring Landes, where thousands of evacuees were allowed home after a separate wildfire was fixed.
− "Doubtless, tomorrow will be more complicated than today."
Around a dozen countries have provided planes, helicopters, firefighters and other assistance to both France and Spain, which is also fighting unprecedented blazes. All told, fires in the two countries have forced more than 330,000 people to flee.
+ The fire had displaced more than 30,000 residents and vacationers.
− In Spain, wildfires have burned out of control around Madrid and in the Valencia region.
+ "The fire is fixed, which is good news in the Landes," French President Emmanuel Macron said Monday evening.
− Authorities evacuated 79,000 people and confined 30,000 others to their homes.
+ Regional authorities said that meant its advance had been stopped and no new fires were breaking out.
− In both Spain and France, the exceptional scale of the fires — fueled by heat waves that hit especially hard and early this year, making forests and scrubland tinder-dry — are driving calls for stronger action against climate change.
+ About 15,000 people were authorized to return home Monday night in Sanguinet, Parentis-en-Born and some parts of Biscarrosse.
− "What we are experiencing is not a series of isolated incidents.
+ Residents of Biscarrosse's aviation village and a large campground were among those allowed back, although several other neighborhoods remained inaccessible.
The return marked a significant step for communities that emptied as flames swept through forests and tourist areas during the height of the summer vacation season.
Authorities warned that the Landes fire was not extinguished.
Residual hot spots, wind and drought could cause flare-ups, and surveillance and damping-down operations were expected to continue for days or possibly weeks.
The gains in both fire zones faced an immediate test Tuesday as temperatures began climbing again.
France's national weather service placed Gironde under a yellow heat warning from midday, forecasting inland temperatures of 33 to 35 C (91 to 95 F).
− It is the consequence of a climate emergency that is making wildfires even more violent, heat waves more frequent," Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said.
+ Southeast winds were expected across the department, with westerly sea breezes along the coast.
+ More than 116,000 hectares have burned across France so far this year, according to the Interior Ministry.
Western Europe recorded its hottest June on record, with extreme heat and widespread dryness helping fires spread and intensify in France and Spain, the European Union's Copernicus climate service said.
Hundreds of firefighters backed by military emergency brigades and water-dropping aircraft continued battling several major wildfires in Spain, including the largest ever recorded in the fire-prone country.
Spanish Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska said Tuesday that nonstop work through the night left him "reasonably positive," but warned that conditions could deteriorate as temperatures rose again.
Spain's national weather service said the country was entering its fourth heat wave of the summer Tuesday, with temperatures expected to exceed 40 C (104 F) in some areas.
Authorities have evacuated some 79,000 people and ordered another 30,000 to remain in their homes during an unprecedented crisis that prompted the government to declare a national emergency for wildfires for the first time.
− Baz Ratner/AP hide caption
A fire raging in hilly, rural terrain in Ávila, west of Madrid, has become Spain's largest on record, scorching 500 square kilometers (193 square miles), the government said.
+ Baz Ratner/AP hide caption
The greatest concern remained two large fires that had at times come close to merging into a single mega-blaze in wooded hills about an hour's drive west of Madrid.
Another fire in the eastern province of Castellón also forced mass evacuations.
A fire burning through hilly, rural terrain in Ávila, west of Madrid, has become Spain's largest on record, scorching more than 500 square kilometers (193 square miles), the government said.
− That's five times the size of Barcelona.
+ That is five times the size of Barcelona.
− Look at the houses, the people," said David Gonzalez, a 48-year-old gardener who used his van to run supplies to firefighters in Ávila.
+ Look at the houses, the people," said David Gonzalez, a 48-year-old gardener who used his van to deliver supplies to firefighters in Ávila.
− "We are feeling lot of anger and helplessness.
+ "We are feeling a lot of anger and helplessness.
− The minister said that another heat wave forecast from Tuesday — which would be Spain's fourth so far this year — could ratchet up the fire danger. Spain's weather agency forecast temperatures above 40 C (104 F).
+ Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has called for a national pact to fight wildfires made worse by climate change.
− A wildfire driven by strong winds broke out on Sunday afternoon near Peschici, in Italy's southern Puglia region, burning pine forest and scrub and forcing the evacuation of about 300 tourists from beaches and campgrounds, authorities said.
The Coast Guard evacuated tourists by sea to nearby Vieste, where authorities opened temporary shelters.
Three Canadair water-bombing planes and fire crews on the ground continued Monday to battle the blaze, which revived memories of devastating wildfires that hit the same coastal area in 2007.