375,000 evacuated as record wildfires near Madrid and Bordeaux face a fourth heatwave

Fires encroach on Madrid and Bordeaux

Wildfires in Spain and France have burned with an intensity not seen since European Union records began in 2006. The two largest blazes, one west of Madrid and another near Bordeaux, are the biggest ever recorded in each country. In Spain, the Ávila fire has left a burn scar about 48 kilometres wide visible from space, while the La Mierla fire northeast of Madrid consumed more than 32,000 hectares before being stabilized last week. On Monday, authorities ordered the evacuation of Valdemaqueda, a town of 870 people just 40 kilometres from the Spanish capital, as flames pushed closer. France has seen 40 percent more land burned than in any previous year tracked by the European Forest Fire Information System.

Mass evacuations across two countries

About 375,000 people have been forced to flee their homes, with 260,000 evacuated in France and 116,000 in Spain. In the Gironde region around Bordeaux, the worst-hit area in France, nearly 4,000 more were evacuated from tourist sites in Lacanau on Tuesday morning alone. Gironde's prefect, Sophie Brocas, banned all sporting and cultural events until August 8. Some Spanish evacuees have begun returning: in Toledo province, residents of nine of 11 evacuated towns were allowed back on Tuesday. 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.

Fourth heatwave threatens to intensify blazes

A new heatwave, the fourth to hit Europe since May, began in France on Tuesday and is expected to reach Spain on Wednesday. Météo-France forecasts temperatures of 40 degrees Celsius or higher across western France, while Spain's AEMET warns of up to 42 degrees in the south. The European Forest Fire Information System has placed parts of southwestern France and northern Spain under "very extreme fire conditions," its highest danger category, through at least Wednesday. Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska said firefighters had a "crucial" two-day window to control the blazes around Madrid before the extreme heat arrives. Portugal, Britain, and Ireland also face elevated fire danger.

Climate emergency and political response

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, speaking in Castellón on Monday, called the fires "the most painful expression of a climate emergency" and urged all political parties to join a national pact on wildfire prevention. Madrid's regional president, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, was brought to tears by the disaster. An exceptionally wet winter had turbocharged vegetation growth across southern Europe, creating a massive tinderbox when it collided with the driest, hottest weather on record. June was the hottest ever recorded in Western Europe, according to Copernicus, and successive heatwaves since late May have left vegetation parched.

This climate emergency is exceeding every threshold and scale that scientists have long warned all of Spain and Europe about.

On the ground: fear and flight

In Madrid, Elena Sánchez, 54, who sells beer at a kiosk on the city's western edge, watched the sky turn a hazy gray. "It's scary. I'm afraid it might reach here," she said. An acrid burning smell kept people indoors; older residents wore surgical masks. In Arcachon on France's southwest coast, Patrick, a 77-year-old tourist, saw a "great billowing pall of black smoke" and hitchhiked 69 kilometres back to Bordeaux with his wife after all trains were cancelled by an electrical fault that had nothing to do with the fire.

My main memory is how bizarre it was to watch people enjoying holidays on the beach while a major catastrophe was unfolding in full view, not far away. Is this how the world ends?