Hours of agony with the fires in France and Spain: Flames 15 km from Bordeaux, 320,000 people have fled their homes
France and Spain are in a state of emergency, as giant forest fires rage out of control, causing mass evacuations and huge destruction
Takeaways…
French and Spanish firefighters are battling extensive forest fires that have led to the evacuation of 325,000 people from their homes in the two countries.
In the French region of Gironde, the fire has destroyed 420,000 hectares of land and is approaching 15 kilometers from the metropolitan area of Bordeaux.
Some 4,150 firefighters and soldiers are working on the front lines in France, while in Spain the fires are affecting areas around Madrid and Valencia.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez warned of difficult times and appealed for national cooperation against the effects of climate change.
French and Spanish firefighters are battling giant wildfires that have forced the evacuation of 325,000 people in the Bordeaux region in southwestern France, where the flames are now 15 kilometers from the French metropolis, as well as in the Community of Madrid and Valencia in Spain.
The huge fire in Gironde on France’s Atlantic coast spread rapidly overnight and has so far burned 420,000 hectares of land.
It is now burning just 15 kilometers from the Bordeaux metropolitan area, but the evacuation of the city “is not on the agenda,” Mayor Thomas Cazenave reiterated.
🇫🇷The massive wildfires in France have now reached the city of Bordeaux. pic.twitter.com/WfyWxtvHgh
— dana (@dana916) July 25, 2026
The Bordeaux region, world-famous for its vineyards, is “very likely” to be the largest evacuation operation ever carried out in France in peacetime, according to the French government. The fire is already one of the largest recorded in the country since World War II.
Okolice miasta Bordeaux w południowo-zachodniej Francji.
film. X/oumsedia69 pic.twitter.com/v0PnctqXTC
— Remiza.pl (@remizacompl) July 25, 2026
Several municipalities in the Bordeaux metropolitan area, which has a population of 850,000, were ordered to evacuate again overnight.
“The situation remains very unfavorable”
“The situation remains very unfavorable” on the forest fire front in France, mainly in the Gironde region where the fire has burned 420,000 hectares and led to the evacuation of 220,000 people from their homes, but also in Landes and Var, Interior Minister Laurent Nunez said in a post on X.
“At the beginning of the night, in Gironde, the fire became extremely fierce, unpredictable, creating its own wind and spreading in an unpredictable way towards the residential area of Bordeaux,” explained the Interior Minister, clarifying that the fire subsided before dawn.
18 aircraft have been deployed to combat the fires since this morning and the A400M will operate again, he added.
In Land, the other major front, where 36,000 acres of land have been burned, a resurgence was tackled by aerial means this morning and the perimeter of the fire remains very active, the French Interior Minister added.
In Var, “the expected return of the maestro raises fears of a new deterioration in conditions, while almost 3,000 people have been removed from their homes as a precaution.
In total, around 4,150 firefighters are working on the front lines of the fires: 2,500, including a Swiss team, in Gironde, assisted by 1,500 soldiers, around 500 in Landes and 1,100 in Var, according to the Interior Minister.
Other fire fronts in France are also active in France, such as in Corsica and the Hautes-Alpes, added Laurent Nunez, appealing to everyone for the greatest possible vigilance, as in a context of adverse meteorological conditions the slightest carelessness can have tragic consequences.
“Operational impossibility”
It is a fire that has no logic, no direction. It cannot be predicted, explains Guillaume Millet, of the Gironde Fire and Rescue Service.
“Next week we will unfortunately have a new heat wave. We are reaching the limits of our capabilities and heading towards an operational impossibility that is approaching,” warned Lieutenant Colonel David Anotel, spokesman for the National Firefighters Federation, to France Inter.
“Difficult times” for Spain
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has called for a national “agreement” to address the effects of climate change and warned that difficult times are coming for the country, which is still facing major fires in areas around Madrid and Valencia.
“We are facing difficult times, that is certain, but the information we have received here shows that the night was positive in terms of the development of the fire, its control and the operations to deal with it,” he told reporters during his visit to the fire-stricken region of Avila.
Debemos alcanzar un gran Pacto de Estado frente a la Emergencia Climática. No solo por nuestra seguridad, también por deber moral.
Este mismo martes aprobaremos en el Consejo de Ministros la declaración de zonas gravemente afectadas por emergencias de protección civil las… pic.twitter.com/7opRYIqUyT
— Pedro Sánchez (@sanchezcastejon) July 26, 2026
The Spanish prime minister, who often clashes with conservative local leaders of Spain’s autonomous regions, insisted that there was a need for “a response appropriate and proportionate to the magnitude of this climate emergency,” adding that “all public authorities at all levels must act in this direction.”
Spain’s King Felipe VI expressed his sadness at the loss of “priceless natural heritage.”
“Some have been forced to abandon their homes for four days, others have lost their property and we have all lost a priceless natural heritage,” said King Felipe during his visit to a fire shelter in the Madrid region.
Around 75,000 people were evacuated from their homes in areas around the Spanish capital and in the Valencia region to the east, where strong winds threaten to spread the fire southwards.
Hours of agony with fires in France and Spain: 320,000 people have fled their homes as flames burn 15km from Bordeaux
The flames have destroyed 250,000 hectares of land west of Madrid.
“We are faced with a national emergency that extends from the Autonomous Community of Madrid to the province of Ávila (Castile and León) and the province of Toledo (Castile-La Mancha), on a front of 280 kilometers. This is a gigantic fire, which the entire state apparatus is trying to deal with with all its strength,” Civil Protection Secretary General Virginia Barcones told Spanish public television.
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