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France evacuates thousands as fires displace a third of a million in southwest Europe
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Firefighters use controlled burning to halt a wildfire that continues to spread near Cebreros, Ávila province, Spain, Tuesday, July 28, 2026.
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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 France evacuates thousands as fires displace a third of a million in southwest Europe French authorities ordered 4,000 more people evacuated from tourist sites along its Atlantic coast, widening what may be France's largest peacetime evacuation.
+ 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 New heatwave threatens France's and Spain's fight to contain wildfires Authorities in France and Spain say some of their wildfires are mostly contained, but others are blazing on and a new wave of extreme heat is raising fears of more fires to come.
− Europe France evacuates thousands as fires displace a third of a million in southwest Europe July 29, 20263:22 AM ET By
The Associated Press
Firefighters battle a blaze outside Lanton, during wildfires in southwestern France, Tuesday, July 28, 2026.
+ Europe In France and Spain, the battle to contain wildfires faces another heatwave Updated July 29, 202612:18 PM ET Originally published July 29, 20263:22 AM ET By
NPR's International Desk
Firefighters battle a blaze outside Lanton, during wildfires in southwestern France, Tuesday.
− Emma Da Silva/AP hide caption
LEGE-CAP FERRET, France — French authorities ordered 4,000 more people evacuated from tourist sites along its Atlantic coast on Tuesday, widening what may be France's largest peacetime evacuation as returning heat threatened firefighters' fragile hold on a vast wildfire west of Bordeaux.
+ Emma Da Silva/AP hide caption
Authorities in France and Spain say some of the countries' wildfires that have raged for nearly a week are mostly contained, but other fires are blazing on, and a new wave of extreme heat, dry conditions and strong winds is raising fears of more fires to come.
− Europe France and Spain fires force more than 300,000 to flee homes Fresh flames erupted later Tuesday near Grand Crohot, a popular Atlantic beach on the Lège-Cap-Ferret peninsula, local authorities said.
+ In southwestern France, two major fires that began last week have burned through about 100,000 acres of forests, farmland and villages.
The response has involved thousands of firefighters, military personnel and international support.
− A fleet of 23 planes and helicopters — up from 18 — dropped water and fire retardant as crews fought to keep the renewed flames from spreading.
+ Around 5,000 people are battling the flames in France, while the European Union has sent firefighting aircraft and helicopters to assist French Canadair planes that scoop water and dump it on the flames.
− "The situation remains complicated.
+ Canadair firefighting aircraft are deployed to extinguish the wildfire on the Camp de Souge military training ground, near the town of Martignas-sur-Jalle, Gironde, on Tuesday.
− That's clear.
+ Gauthier Bedrignans/Hans Lucas/AFP via Getty Images hide caption
At the height of the crisis, more than 200,000 people had to evacuate their homes and vacation sites in France and nearly 100,000 in Spain.
− We're not out of the woods," Gironde prefect Sophie Brocas said.
+ Tens of thousands of evacuees have been authorized by the governments of both countries to return.
− She said that about 60,000 residents who were evacuated as a precaution from Le Haillan and parts of Mérignac and Eysines outside Bordeaux's ring road could return on Tuesday. No fires had broken out in the three areas, but residents were told to keep their mobile phones on and emergency bags packed.
+ View this post on Instagram A post shared by NPR (@npr)
The worst-hit area in France is the wine-growing Gironde region along the Atlantic coast, known for its beaches, surfing and enormous pine forests.
− The opposing movements — thousands ordered out of coastal resorts while those returning told to be on the alert — underscored how precarious the fire's hold remained.
Across France and Spain, roughly 330,000 people have been driven from homes and vacation sites by huge wildfires.
+ It is home to the Landes Forest, man-made woodlands of pine trees were planted in the 1700s to help absorb swampy soil.
− Spain braced for its fourth heat wave of the summer, with several blazes still burning out of control, including the largest in its recorded history.
+ But today, those forests have become a massive source of fuel for wildfires.
− Even so, Spanish authorities began lifting evacuation and stay-at-home orders for thousands of people after firefighters made progress overnight.
The Gironde fire has burned an area four times the size of Paris and forced 220,000 people to evacuate.
+ Short Wave Are extreme wildfires the new normal?
− Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez has said it is "very likely" the largest civilian evacuation operation carried out in the country outside war.
+ Repeated heatwaves have left the landscape dangerously dry.
− The precautionary evacuation order covered campsites, holiday villages, tourist residences and leisure parks around the resort of Lacanau, Gironde regional authorities said.
+ This comes as climate change, brought on primarily by the burning of fossil fuels, is making heat waves last longer and peak at higher temperatures than in the past.
− "We are at a point of fragility," Eric Brocardi, spokesperson for France's national firefighters federation, told the BFMTV broadcast network Tuesday. "We will continue attacking this fire despite the forecast rise in temperatures."
Even as nearby homes burned and authorities urged tourists to stay away, one family told Le Parisien newspaper it had gone ahead with its trip rather than forfeit a 4,000-euro ($4,558) holiday, while another group debated abandoning a vacation that had cost 650 euros ($741) each.
+ Europe is warming faster than any other continent and the number of extreme heat days is expected to multiply, says Mounia Mostefaoui, a climatologist and board member of a French scientific expert group on climate change.
− At its most violent, the Gironde blaze created a gargantuan black thundercloud, electrified and lit from within.
+ Europe France and Spain fires force more than 300,000 to flee homes "These heat waves, they create drought conditions.
− It generated lightning, violent winds and new fires beyond the original front.
+ It's exactly what we have currently in France [where] we had three heat waves," Mostefaoui says.
− The phenomenon, known as a pyrocumulonimbus cloud, was the first recorded in France.
+ "We are only in July, August has not even started."
France is now facing a fourth heatwave this summer — creating what experts describe as the perfect conditions for large-scale wildfires.
− Europe With wildfires raging in France and Spain, fire crews race against next heat wave France's national weather service placed Gironde under a yellow heat warning beginning at midday Tuesday, forecasting inland temperatures of 33 to 35 C (91 to 95 F).
+ Firefighters say these blazes have been especially challenging because they can change direction quickly and behave in unpredictable ways.
− More than 1,160 square kilometers (448 square miles) have burned across France this year, according to the Interior Ministry.
+ Scientists say France is experiencing a phenomenon more commonly seen in places like California: fire clouds, or pyrocumulus clouds.
− Europe is the world's fastest-warming continent, heating at more than twice the global average, according to the European Union's Copernicus climate service. Western Europe recorded its hottest June on record, with extreme heat and widespread dryness contributing to the spread and intensification of fires in France and Spain, Copernicus said.
+ Jean-Baptiste Filippi, a scientist with the French National Center for Scientific Research who specializes in fire-weather forecasting, says these clouds form when an intense fire interacts with the atmosphere.
− In Le Porge alone, west of Bordeaux, the municipal government said about 150 homes were destroyed.
+ Europe Photos: Spain and France battle record wildfires Filippi says that creates a powerful exchange of heat and energy that can strengthen the fire itself.
− Officials warned that smoldering vegetation, rising temperatures and falling humidity could produce fresh outbreaks along the fire's vast perimeter.
Europe Photos: Spain and France battle record wildfires Military engineers and forest-fire prevention crews resumed cutting firebreaks early Tuesday.
+ "Any time you have a cloud that is forming, you have energy in the atmosphere.
− Authorities said crews had completed 103 kilometers (64 miles) of firebreaks.
+ But the fact that the fire is there is making this energy available for the fire, so the interaction becomes strong," he says.
− At least 110 firefighters have been injured, the prefecture said.
In Landes, about 15,000 evacuees — roughly half of those displaced here — were allowed home after a separate wildfire stopped advancing.
"The fire is fixed, which is good news in the Landes," French President Emmanuel Macron said Monday evening.
+ Filippi says a column of hot gases and rising winds can create a cloud that reaches up to 6 miles high.
− Regional authorities said that meant its advance had stopped and no new outbreaks had been reported.
+ Once that happens, he says, these fires become almost impossible to stop — much like a storm cannot simply be shut down.
− Those allowed back included residents of Sanguinet, Parentis-en-Born, Biscarrosse's aviation village and a large campground. Several other neighborhoods remained inaccessible.
+ That is what happened during the wildfires in France's Bordeaux region over the weekend.
− 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 weeks.
+ Because of the unpredictable nature of these fires, authorities evacuated more than 200,000 people before the flames could threaten communities.
− Spanish firefighters made progress Tuesday, and authorities began lifting evacuation orders for at least 20,000 of the 79,000 people forced to flee over the weekend.
− Manu Fernandez/AP hide caption
Francisco Martín, the central government's representative in the Madrid region, said orders would be lifted in 10 towns, allowing about 20,000 evacuees to return home and ending stay-at-home orders for another 14,000 people.
Residents of some villages in Ávila were also being allowed home, though authorities did not specify how many.
+ Manu Fernandez/AP hide caption
In neighboring Spain, crews are still fighting fires that broke out one week ago, but authorities say there has been progress in some areas.
− Another 6,000 people could return after a smaller fire near Toledo was brought under control, while several thousand more went home in Castellón.
+ In the Madrid region, the fire remained stable overnight, allowing tens of thousands of residents to return home.
− Hundreds of firefighters backed by military emergency brigades and water-dropping aircraft continued battling several major wildfires.
+ But the fire in the Castellón region is still out of control after burning nearly 25,000 acres and forcing more than 10,000 people to evacuate.
− Smoke from the fires reached Madrid in recent days. Emergency services said residents in central and eastern districts could smell smoke and ash.
+ Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez visited emergency command facilities and warned that the danger has not passed.
− Spanish Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska said Tuesday that nonstop work through the night left him "reasonably positive," though officials warned that crews had only a brief window before extreme heat returned.
Spain's national weather service said the country was bracing for its fourth heat wave of the summer, with temperatures expected to exceed 40 C (104 F) in some areas.
The government declared a national emergency over the fires.
At least 13 people have died in wildfires in Spain this year, making 2026 one of the country's deadliest fire seasons in decades.
"I've been living in San Martín de Valdeiglesias for 20 years and I never thought I would see this," said Estella Costales, an evacuated resident staying at a temporary shelter in Brunete, near Madrid.
+ "There are currently 10 active wildfires in Spain," he said.
− "It's unfortunate, but I never thought I would see such destruction."
The greatest concern was two large fires that had at times come close to merging into a single blaze in wooded hills about an hour's drive west of Madrid.
+ Sánchez urged residents to remain extremely cautious during the ongoing heatwave, which is expected to continue through Sunday.
− A fire in 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.
+ Hundreds of firefighters in Castellón and the Valencia region remain deployed as fires continue burning in largely uninhabited areas.
− Local weather services in Ávila also shared images Tuesday of what they described as a pyrocumulonimbus cloud over the blaze. Spain has seen these fire-generated thunderstorms form at least twice during wildfires in recent years.
+ The extreme heat and other conditions fueling these wildfires continue in other parts of Europe.
− "Look at how the valley is burned. 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.
+ In the southern Greek island of Crete, two firefighters have died battling a wildfire, The Associated Press reported.
− "We are feeling a lot of anger and helplessness.
+ Eleanor Beardsley reported from Paris.
− It's something inhuman," he said.
+ Miguel Macias reported from Seville, Spain.
− Fires have burned 1,530 square kilometers (590 square miles) this year in Spain, Ecology Minister Sara Aagesen said.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has called for a national pact to fight wildfires, saying climate change is making them worse.