分类： environment

LEGE-CAP FERRET, France — Uncontrolled wildfires tearing through southwestern France have triggered a sweeping new wave of evacuations, forcing 55,000 additional residents to flee their homes overnight Sunday. This new displacement pushes the total number of people evacuated from the Gironde region alone — the country’s renowned wine-producing area home to the historic city of Bordeaux — to 220,000, as fast-spreading flames draw steadily closer to the city’s urban core.

Regional officials confirmed overnight evacuation orders for five more communities located southwest of Bordeaux, a centuries-old city celebrated globally for its wine industry and cultural heritage. According to an official statement, strong gusting winds amplified the blaze through the overnight hours, supercharging the spread of a fire that has burned without containment since the middle of last week.

The prefect of Gironde also implemented a partial closure of a major highway running southwest out of Bordeaux, a key transport link for the region, to support emergency response efforts and keep residents out of harm’s way. Bordeaux’s mayor emphasized in a public update that the fire remains an immediate threat to the metropolitan area, with the closest edge of the blaze now sitting just 15 kilometers, or roughly 9 miles, from the city’s outer limits.

A second large-scale wildfire, burning hundreds of kilometers south in France’s Landes region, has forced another 30,000 people to evacuate since the outbreak began earlier this week. When combined, the two French blazes have now displaced more than 250,000 people total. The crisis is not confined to France, either: neighboring Spain is also facing its own severe wildfire emergency, with authorities reporting that 70,000 people have been evacuated from areas west of Madrid this week as blazes spread across the region amid hot, dry conditions.

Across Southern and Western Europe, a devastating outbreak of unseasonably early and widespread wildfires is overwhelming firefighting resources, displacing hundreds of thousands of people and leaving emergency responders scrambling to contain blazes fueled by record heat and unpredictable gusty winds. The crisis has already spread from France and Spain to Italy and the United Kingdom, with regional and EU officials warning that 2026 is on track to become the worst year for European wildfire damage on record.

In southwestern France, the situation remains particularly critical, with strong winds pushing large active flames within 40 to 50 kilometers of the major city of Bordeaux. As of Saturday morning, smoke carried by prevailing winds had already reached Bordeaux, leaving a sharp acrid odor hanging over the city, even as the main blaze remained outside the urban center. One senior French official confirmed that response teams are still far from gaining full control of the fastest-spreading blazes in the Gironde and Landes regions.

To date, approximately 200,000 residents and tourists have been evacuated from high-risk areas across southwestern France, with emergency orders issued overnight for seven small communities located west of Bordeaux. Temporary emergency shelters have been constructed across the region to house displaced people, while the French government has mobilized military personnel to support overstretched local firefighters, clearing underbrush and constructing strategic fire breaks to slow the advance of flames. French Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez announced that a total of 98,000 hectares of land have already burned across the country since the start of 2026, and President Emmanuel Macron has called an emergency cabinet meeting to coordinate the national response amid an unprecedented outbreak of roughly 30 active fires across the nation.

The crisis has also disrupted major public events: organizers of the Tour de France confirmed they have shortened the race’s final Sunday leg from 133 kilometers to 89 kilometers, allowing security forces that were assigned to the route to be redeployed to wildfire-affected zones.

Many evacuees, including a large number of international tourists staying in popular coastal and regional vacation spots, have described terrifying experiences fleeing the advancing flames. Spencer Randall, a British tourist who evacuated with his family in the early hours of Saturday to a town 100 miles east of Bordeaux, told reporters his group can still smell smoke from the wildfires at their safe location. “It’s quite strong winds fanning the flames, just terrifying,” he said. Another British vacationing couple in the Bordeaux area reported that ash from the fires has coated their rental property’s swimming pool and turned their shoes black during outdoor walks, with smoke that irritates lungs almost immediately after stepping outside. Local residents described the unfolding disaster as deeply stressful, with one calling the widespread destruction a “total disaster.”

To the south, Spain is facing its own unprecedented wildfire crisis, with a national state of emergency declared. One fatality has already been confirmed: a man in his 70s was found dead in his car by responding firefighters working to extinguish a blaze in the Salt de l’Aigua ravine in Manises, in the València region, according to local media reports.

So far in 2026, more than 130,000 hectares of land have burned across Spain, which exceeds the 10-year annual average of 100,000 hectares for the country. Nearly 60,000 people have been evacuated from high-risk areas in the Madrid and Ávila regions, with more than 28,000 remaining confined to their homes to avoid exposure to smoke and fire hazards. Madrid’s regional president Isabel Díaz Ayuso called the current outbreak the “worst fire in the history of the region.”

While shifting weather conditions, including lower temperatures, higher humidity and reduced wind speeds, have created a small window of opportunity for firefighters to gain ground on blazes outside Madrid, Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez warned that major challenges remain. “It’s true that temperatures have dropped a little bit. But still the wind is making it difficult and there may be thunderstorms as well,” Sánchez told reporters from Cenicientos, south-west of Madrid, adding that the country still faces “complex times ahead.”

The wildfire crisis is not limited to France and Spain. On the Italian island of Sicily, civil protection officials confirmed that more than 350 separate fires, including 10 large major blazes, have broken out, prompting multiple evacuation orders. In Scotland, emergency services declared a major incident on Friday evening to respond to a large wildfire that has been burning uncontrolled for 10 days in the Cairngorms National Park.

EU crisis management commissioner Hadja Lahbib warned that the current season is on track to break last year’s grim record of 1 million hectares of burned land across Europe. “We are expecting to face another historical, sad record because the season has started earlier in the year,” Lahbib told the BBC, adding that forecasters predict another upcoming heatwave that could trigger additional new outbreaks across the continent.

To support overwhelmed national response efforts, the EU has activated its civil protection mechanism, with cross-border reinforcements deployed to the hardest-hit countries. France is receiving three Canadair water bombers from Croatia, two Air Tractor water aircraft from Portugal, Black Hawk helicopters from the Czech Republic and Slovakia, and a 40-person forest firefighting team from Romania. EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen added that 11 additional aircraft and helicopters from the EU’s shared firefighting fleet have also been deployed to both France and Spain to boost response capacity.

What was supposed to be a peaceful summer getaway for hundreds of tourists and local residents across southwestern France and central Spain turned into a frantic race for survival last week, as out-of-control wildfires tore through dry forest landscapes, forcing mass evacuations that have now displaced more than 220,000 people across both countries. As high winds and record-breaking heat continue to stoke the fast-moving blazes, France has deployed military personnel to assist overstretched firefighting teams, while Spain has declared a national state of emergency to coordinate response efforts.

Multiple tourists who escaped the fire zones shared harrowing firsthand accounts of their ordeals with the BBC, describing chaotic overnight evacuation orders, last-minute escapes that brought them just hundreds of meters from towering 6-story flames, and thousands of displaced people crowding local beaches with all their belongings in tow. Even areas far from the active fire lines report acrid, bonfire-like smoke hanging in the air, a constant reminder of the crisis unfolding nearby.

Zac Morrison, a 21-year-old London resident who arrived at the popular pine-covered Cap Ferret peninsula in southwestern France with 10 family members on Thursday, woke just hours after checking in to two emergency text alerts ordering immediate evacuation ‘by all means necessary’ at 4 a.m. and 6 a.m. He told reporters that French gendarmerie went door-to-door to clear the peninsula, an experience he described as ‘something like out of a movie.’ After evacuating the first fire zone, Morrison’s family was once again placed in the crosshairs of a second spreading blaze, receiving four separate evacuation updates in the days that followed, the most recent arriving Friday afternoon. The family sheltered on a public beach in nearby Arcachon before securing emergency accommodation with a relative, and 11-year-old Nate Morrison, Zac’s brother, has still not processed the trauma of seeing the wild flames firsthand. Morrison noted that many other displaced residents and tourists have been forced to sleep in temporary shelters like schools and warehouses, while hundreds wait on beaches for further instructions, luggage in hand. His family remains in limbo, waiting for official word on whether they can return to their holiday accommodation planned through mid-August. ‘It rained last night but we are hearing that electricity may be cut out over the peninsula, especially as the ash clouds go towards Bordeaux… I’ve heard about houses burning in just an hour, it’s scary but sadly people here are getting used to it,’ Morrison said.

British visitor David Morton, who was wrapping up a week-long holiday to Cap Ferret with his wife and two teenage sons, said his trip was upended on day five when the dry pine forest and extreme heat created ideal conditions for the fire to spread. He told the BBC that his entire family was woken Friday morning by blaring emergency alerts on their phones, ordering immediate evacuation along the only exit road off the peninsula. ‘We literally threw everything into our suitcases and within 15 minutes were in the hire car,’ Morton explained. The family drove within 500 meters of the main blaze, where Morton said flames reached heights taller than full-grown pine trees, equivalent to five or six stories, and the fire was clearly out of control. The family stayed with local friends until their scheduled flight home from Bordeaux departed Saturday.

Not everyone managed to evacuate in time, however. Rebecca Papin, a French-American visiting her holiday home in Biscarrosse, a commune near Cap Ferret, spotted a large plume of smoke in the distance Thursday afternoon. By the time she returned home three hours later, the sky was filled with water-bombing planes and firefighter helicopters, and the horizon was lined with a solid wall of flames. She told BBC Radio 4’s *Today* programme that authorities appeared overwhelmed by the speed of the blaze and never issued a formal evacuation order to her area. Papin, who slept with earplugs to block out the noise of emergency aircraft overnight, missed overnight evacuation alerts and woke Friday morning to find nearly the entire city evacuated, with her still trapped inside. ‘The main roads are closed because they’re on fire – the police advised me on Friday morning at 7.30am to stay in my home, to not leave my home under any circumstance; there was ash falling from the sky like snow,’ she said.

The wildfire crisis has not been limited to France. In central Spain, multiple blazes are burning in regions outside of Madrid, and authorities are working around the clock to prevent separate fire fronts from merging into one massive, uncontrollable blaze. The flames have already forced the closure of a NASA facility 37 kilometers west of Madrid. Madrid’s regional president Isabel Díaz Ayuso has called the blaze the ‘worst fire in the history of the region,’ noting the area is facing a ‘perfect storm’ of record high temperatures, constant gusty winds, and merging fire fronts that makes containment extremely difficult.

Despite the severity of the crisis, major travel links have remained largely unaffected: commercial flights to Bordeaux and Madrid, the two largest cities closest to the fire zones, are still operating normally. French officials have urged foreign tourists not to cancel planned trips to the country, noting that the vast majority of French regions remain unaffected by the blazes. Éléonore Caroit, France’s minister for international partnerships, told reporters Saturday: ‘You have entire areas that are fine, you’re seeing similar phenomena in Spain and other countries. I’m in Paris and nothing is happening, and most other regions are OK, so do please come to France and do not cancel your travel plans. But wherever you are, please do be advised as to what might be happening.’ The UK Foreign Office has also not issued any advisory against travel to France or Spain, despite the ongoing emergency. The UK has had multiple of its own citizens caught up in evacuations, and many have relocated to other regions of France to continue their holidays after fleeing the fire zones.

In the dead of night, roaring wildfires sweeping through southwestern France have forced urgent evacuations, leaving a community of elderly and vulnerable care home residents dislocated and reeling from sudden upheaval. Staff at the facility, who spoke on condition of anonymity to regional media, described chaotic, high-stakes hours scrambling to move residents with limited time and resources amid spreading flames and worsening air quality.

Unusually dry conditions and record summer temperatures across Western Europe have created a tinderbox in the region, priming vegetation for rapid fire spread that has outpaced initial containment efforts. Many of the care home’s residents have limited mobility or chronic health conditions, requiring extra support to evacuate safely in the middle of the night, when most were already asleep.

Care workers recounted carrying residents out one by one, coordinating with emergency services to secure temporary shelter at alternate facilities kilometers away from the fire zone. For many of these vulnerable people, the sudden displacement has added significant emotional and physical stress, with some separated from personal belongings and familiar routines that are critical to their well-being.

Local emergency management officials have confirmed that multiple communities across southwest France have been evacuated in recent days as wildfires expand, with more than a thousand hectares of forest and scrubland already burned. The care home evacuation stands out as a stark example of how extreme wildfire events, amplified by climate change, disproportionately impact the most vulnerable members of society, testing emergency response systems that are already stretched thin by a growing number of climate-driven disasters.

In the summer of an escalating climate crisis, two of Western Europe’s most popular destinations are grappling with out-of-control wildfires that have forced more than 200,000 people to flee their homes, with flames now pushing toward the iconic French wine hub of Bordeaux.

The emergency unfolded rapidly across southwestern France and central Spain this week, with record-high temperatures and prolonged drought amplified by climate change turning vast forested areas into tinder that fueled fires of unprecedented ferocity. Officials in both nations have acknowledged they were caught off guard by the speed and intensity of the advancing flames, which have overwhelmed initial firefighting deployments.

In France, the blaze that began Wednesday near the Atlantic coastal vacation spot of Cap Ferret — just 37 miles southwest of Bordeaux — has swelled in size driven by strong westerly winds. By Friday, Gironde region prefect Sophie Brocas confirmed the fire had reached an “unprecedented magnitude” and was steadily advancing on the Bordeaux metropolitan area. Overnight Saturday, authorities issued mandatory evacuation orders for portions of three western suburbs of Bordeaux, including the city’s airport, plus additional communities further west beyond the immediate metro area.

“As the fire continues to spread, and despite the significant resources deployed by firefighters, the evacuation of residents from the affected areas is required to ensure their safety,” the prefecture’s official statement read. Targeted residents received emergency alert notifications directly to their mobile devices with clear evacuation instructions, and authorities have prioritized moving all at-risk people to safe shelter as quickly as possible.

To date, the French Interior Ministry reports roughly 141,000 people across the Gironde and Landes departments have been forced to leave their homes, with many coastal tourist residents fleeing by boat to escape the fast-moving flames. Dozens of French firefighters have been injured while battling the blazes, though no fatalities have been recorded across either France or Spain. For locals, the scale of the disaster is unprecedented: “An evacuation on this scale has never happened before. All we really hope is that the firefighters can quickly get it under control,” said Laurent Moretti, a resident of the French town of Arès.

Across the border in central Spain, roughly 60,000 people living west of Madrid have similarly been displaced by raging wildfires that burned out of control Friday. Spanish firefighters have acknowledged the blazes move too quickly and violently to be confronted directly, leaving crews focused on evacuation and containment rather than aggressive frontline attacks. On Saturday, regional officials reported a slight reprieve: cooler temperatures and calmer winds overnight reduced fire intensity, creating a small window to reinforce containment lines.

The European Union has mobilized a cross-national response to the emergency, with water-dumping firefighting aircraft already deployed from the Netherlands and Portugal to assist Spanish crews. Four additional aircraft — two from Italy and two from Greece — were expected to arrive in Spain Saturday to boost response efforts.

French officials are also ramping up their response, announcing substantial national reinforcements that include additional firefighters, military personnel, medical workers, and wildfire experts to expand the team tackling the blaze. French Interior Minister Laurent Nunez described the France fire as “a large, self-sustaining fire that is extremely difficult to bring under control,” a assessment echoed by frontline crews and residents alike. As plumes of dark smoke have darkened skies across both regions and panicked residents flee by car, with authorities going door-to-door to clear at-risk neighborhoods, the disaster underscores the growing threat extreme heat and wildfires pose to populated European areas amid accelerating climate change.