France and Spain battle worst wildfires in living memory as new 42°C heatwave looms

Fires near Bordeaux and Madrid

The Gironde fire, burning 15 kilometres from Bordeaux, has consumed 42,000 hectares (103,000 acres) in six days, an area four times the size of Paris. It destroyed 240 houses and forced 220,000 people to evacuate. The blaze, thought to have been sparked accidentally by a brush-clearing machine, generated a rare pyrocumulonimbus cloud, a phenomenon seen in France for the first time, producing lightning and self-feeding firestorms. On Monday evening, interior minister Laurent Nunez said the fire had stopped growing, but the prefect of Gironde warned: "This unprecedented blaze does not follow any known pattern, it creates its own winds and requires constant adaptation." A smaller fire in Landes, which burned 500 hectares in 24 hours and forced 30,000 evacuations, was declared contained, though Macron cautioned it "remains virulent". In Spain, fires are active west of Madrid in Toledo and Ávila, and in Valencia. Around 116,000 people have been ordered to leave or shelter in place.

Mass evacuations and destruction

More than 330,000 people have fled across both countries. France evacuated about 250,000 residents and tourists; Spain, around 116,000. At a Madrid sports hall, evacuee Maria Angeles Canete said: "We lost everything. We had this campsite, we had another one, and we've lost it all. We have nothing." Marylene Lortil, who fled her home near Bordeaux, described the scene as "like an apocalypse", unable to find her three cats. Wine tour operator Maud Quinault reported thousands of euros in cancellations during the peak August season. Authorities banned holiday camps for children and people with disabilities to keep visitors away from the Gironde region. Some 15,000 people in Landes were allowed to return home on Monday evening.

Heatwave threat

MeteoFrance forecast temperatures up to 40°C from Tuesday, with dry winds; Spain's AEMET predicted 42°C in the northeast from Wednesday. Spanish interior minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska said the coming hours would be "absolutely decisive". Macron, visiting a crisis centre, told firefighters: "The coming weeks will be tough and we have to hold out." Crews used earth movers to carve firebreaks, and farmers transported water in tanks. The national weather services warned the heatwave would hinder firefighting and raise the risk of new ignitions. Officials cautioned that the fires could burn for weeks or even months, with the traditional August peak still ahead. Forests in southwest France were placed under a "black alert", banning access.

International response and climate context

A dozen countries sent planes, helicopters and firefighters; the EU dispatched additional water-bombing aircraft. Spain prohibited agricultural machinery in fire-prone areas to reduce spark risks. Macron held a crisis cabinet meeting and later said: "We are facing a situation today that is the most difficult we've seen, the most difficult since the second World War." He added that the crisis was due to the "conditions of climate change in which we will live." Spanish prime minister Pedro Sánchez stated: "The climate emergency and the systematic increase in temperatures we are seeing each year are exponentially increasing the extent and intensity of the wildfires. It is no longer an exception. It is the rule." France's prime minister Sebastien Lecornu noted the area burned had already surpassed the previous record year of 2022, with the August peak still ahead.