More than 200,000 residents have been forced to flee their homes after fast-moving wildfires tore through parts of southwestern France and central Spain, prompting one of the largest emergency evacuations in recent years.
Officials said approximately 141,000 people were evacuated from France’s Gironde and Landes regions, while another 60,000 residents were displaced in central Spain as the fires spread rapidly through forests and threatened nearby communities.
Emergency crews in both countries have struggled to contain the blazes, which have been intensified by soaring temperatures and prolonged dry conditions linked to climate change. Firefighters in Spain said the flames were advancing too quickly to allow direct firefighting operations, while in France some residents escaped by boat after flames engulfed parts of the Atlantic coast.
Despite the scale of the disaster, authorities confirmed there have been no fatalities, although dozens of firefighters sustained injuries while battling the fires. Police carried out door-to-door evacuations as thick smoke blanketed affected communities and residents fled in long lines of vehicles.
France’s Interior Minister, Laurent Nunez, warned that the wildfire in the southwest had already consumed about 140 square kilometers and was advancing toward the city of Bordeaux.
He said a shift in wind direction transformed the blaze into a massive self-sustaining fire that has become extremely difficult to control. Authorities are reorganizing firefighting operations to slow its advance toward the Bordeaux metropolitan area.
President Emmanuel Macron ordered the activation of the government’s national crisis response unit and directed the armed forces to provide full support to civilian emergency services battling the disaster.
Nouvelle-Aquitaine Prefect Sophie Brocas described the wildfire as unprecedented in scale, saying additional national firefighting resources were being deployed to reinforce local crews.
The fire broke out on Wednesday near the Cap Ferret peninsula, about 60 kilometers from Bordeaux. Local officials reported that at least 53 homes and a campsite were destroyed, while 42 firefighters suffered injuries during the response.
About 1,500 evacuees were transported by water taxis and larger boats across the bay to the city of Arcachon after road access became unsafe.
Residents described the situation as unlike anything they had experienced before, expressing hope that emergency responders would soon bring the devastating wildfires under control.
