JULY 28, 2026
France and Spain battle wildfires as returning heat threatens fragile containment efforts
French authorities ordered nearly 4,000 additional people to evacuate tourist sites along the Atlantic coast on Tuesday as rising temperatures threatened firefighters' hold on a vast wildfire west of Bordeaux. Across France and Spain, roughly 330,000 people have been evacuated from homes and vacation sites. Spain entered its fourth heat wave of the summer with several blazes still out of control, including the largest wildfire in the country's recorded history.
The Gironde wildfire, burning since last week, has scorched 420 square kilometers — an area four times the size of Paris — and forced 220,000 people to evacuate. Firefighters held the blaze in check through a calm night on Monday, bringing flare-ups near coastal dunes under control, but authorities described the situation as stabilized rather than fixed. Eric Brocardi, spokesperson for France's national firefighters federation, told BFMTV: "We are at a point of fragility. We will continue attacking this fire despite the forecast rise in temperatures." Ninety-three firefighters have been injured battling the blaze, according to the Gironde prefecture.
Military engineers and forest-fire prevention crews resumed work early Tuesday cutting firebreaks, with 103 kilometers (64 miles) completed. The A63 highway remained partly closed and rail traffic south of Bordeaux was suspended except on routes toward Toulouse. France's national weather service placed Gironde under a yellow heat warning beginning midday Tuesday, with inland temperatures forecast at 33 to 35°C (91–95°F). Officials warned that smoldering vegetation, rising temperatures, and falling humidity could produce fresh outbreaks along the fire's vast perimeter.
Progress was reported in the neighboring Landes department, where about 15,000 evacuees — roughly half of those displaced — were permitted to return 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. Authorities cautioned that the Landes fire was not extinguished, and that surveillance and damping-down operations were expected to continue for days or weeks. More than 1,160 square kilometers have burned across France this year, according to the Interior Ministry. France's Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez said it was "very likely" the largest civilian evacuation ever conducted in the country outside of wartime, the AP reported.