Get you up to speed: More than 220,000 evacuated as ‘apocalyptic’ wildfires spread across France and Spain | News World
Raging wildfires in France and Spain have forced over 220,000 people, including British tourists, to evacuate their homes. In France, authorities ordered the total evacuation of the Cap Ferret peninsula, while in Spain, more than 60,000 were affected, leading to a national emergency declaration.
French authorities have requested emergency support through the EU Civil Protection Mechanism due to the widespread wildfires affecting the Gironde and Landes regions. In Spain, more than 29 major fires have been reported this year, with over 60,000 evacuations ordered, as the country faces its worst wildfire season on record.
The French and Spanish governments have declared national emergencies in response to the widespread wildfires, with French Interior Minister Laurent Nunez acknowledging that fires are heading towards Bordeaux. In addition, Spain’s Environment Minister Sara Aagesen reported that wildfires this year have burned an area significantly greater than the same point last year, prompting a request for international firefighting assistance from countries including Greece and Croatia.
What remains unclear — The exact number of people who have been forced to evacuate from affected areas in Spain is not specified.
Over 220,000 people evacuated as wildfires spread in France and Spain
British tourists had to flee their hotels in the middle of the night as raging wildfires spread across France and Spain, driving more than 220,000 people from their homes.
Thousands escaped by car and boat when French authorities ordered the total evacuation of the Cap Ferret peninsula, a popular spot on the Atlantic Coast.
They described huge ash clouds ‘basically blocking out the sun’, with one resident in a nearby village made to leave their home saying: ‘It’s totally apocalyptic.’
And there does not appear to be any sign of reprieve from the heat, with weather forecasts suggesting temperatures will rise sharply again next week.
Some 141,000 fled their homes in the Gironde and Landes regions in France, the French interior ministry said.
Holidaymakers staying at a Holiday Inn near the airport in Bordeaux, where flames are now headed toward, were woken at 3.30am and told the hotel would be closing due to the approaching smoke.
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French firefighters trying to extinguish the wildfire northwest of Bordeaux (Picture: AFP)
Nicola Smith, 49, from Jersey, who is away with her husband Martin, daughter, granddaughter and six other relatives, told the Daily Mail: ‘We were all fast asleep when a member of hotel staff knocked on the door about 3.30am and said that we were having to evacuate.
‘It was a shock to the system and quite dramatic but I’d been getting alerts on my phone all night by the local French authorities warning about other areas nearby being evacuated.’
Martin, 55, added: ‘It’s not great to be honest but what can you do?
‘Apparently everywhere is being evacuated because of all the smoke drifting across to Bordeaux from the fire.
‘I must admit you could really smell the smoke when we first arrived, there was a kind of haze in the air.’
Madrid on July 24, 2026. Spain declared a national emergency in the Madrid region and in the province of Avila, near the capital, on July 23, 2026, in the wake of several wildfires burning out of control. Scientists have long warned that climatechange caused by human use of fossil fuels will make periods of drought more intense and longer-lasting, creating the ideal conditions for wildfires. (Photo by Cesar MANSO / AFP via Getty Images)” decoding=”async” loading=”lazy”/>
Firefighters battle a wildfire in Cebreros area, near Avila, west of Madrid (Picture: AFP via Getty)
A forest burning in Biscarrosse, southern France (Picture: EPA)
Beachgoers sit on the beach of Moutchic in Lacanau, southwestern France, as clouds of smoke rise into the sky from a wildfire (Picture: AFP via Getty)
In central Spain, 60,000 were forced from their homes, according to the Spanish interior ministry.
Spain declared its first ever wildfire-related national emergency in response to the disaster.
Huge blazes merged outside Madrid, with regional leader Isabel Diaz Ayuso saying: ‘This is the worst wildfire in our region’s history.
‘It’s the perfect storm of very high temperatures and ceaseless winds that aren’t letting up.’
The flames of a wildfire in Cebreros area (Picture: AFP via Getty)
A Salamanca unit’s firefighter cools off while battling a wildfire in Cebreros area (Picture: AFP via Getty)
In southwest France, around 110,000 people, many of them tourists, were told to leave as two major fires threatened homes and campsites, officials said.
Interior minister Laurent Nunez told broadcaster TF1 that fires were heading towards Bordeaux.
Yoan Urien, who fled late on Thursday after police ordered his neighbourhood in the town of Biscarrosse to evacuate, said it was possible to see the fires from his home.
‘We could see the clouds becoming darker and darker,’ the 26-year-old told Reuters.
Marie Duelz, a 51-year-old Belgian tourist vacationing at Cap Ferret, said she saw ‘a cloud of ash that was blocking the sun, basically’.
The other major fire, which began in the nearby village of Saumos, north of Cap Ferret, is threatening to cut off the only road out of the peninsula and is the largest so far this season in France.
It has torn through more than 14,000 hectares of forest and destroyed more than 100 homes and one campsite, officials said.
‘It breaks my heart. Because it’s such a pleasant place to live, seeing it go up in smoke is truly sad,’ Corinne Paillaube said.
‘It’s totally apocalyptic,’ said Ambre Dubos, from the nearby Landes region.
In Spain, more than 19,000 people were ordered to evacuate from towns in the mountains west of Madrid.
‘I had to run from my house. There was a ball of fire. If I’d taken five more minutes, it would have wiped us out,’ Enrique Martin said in a shelter in Cebreros, west of Madrid.
A third fire in Avila province was on the verge or may have already merged with the two in Madrid, Nicanor Sen, the government representative for the Castile and Leon region, told reporters.
Spanish police said they had arrested one person and were investigating another suspected of starting that fire by using heavy machinery in a prohibited area.
The area west of Madrid, where many residents from the capital have second homes, is densely populated.
In just one development 43 homes had been destroyed, Diaz Ayuso said.
It is the second consecutive year that Spain has faced a particularly destructive fire season.
More than 29 major fires have broken out in Spain so far this year, damaging a surface area five times greater than at the same stage in 2025, when a record area was destroyed, Environment Minister Sara Aagesen said in a social media post.
Wildfires have burned more land in Europe already this year than the annual average in the past two decades, data shows as the world’s fastest-warming continent has endured three stifling, virtually back-to-back heatwaves so far this year.
Scientists say human-driven climate change is increasing the intensity of heatwaves, droughts and wildfires, while also creating conditions for sudden, destructive storms.
Greece was sending two firefighting aircraft to Spain, and Croatia provided a similar plane and staff to aid France while Italy dispatched a firefighting plane to Tunisia which also has wildfires.
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