Paris, en.SERU.co.id – Uncontrolled wildfires forced more than 200,000 people to evacuate in southwestern France and central Spain on Friday, July 24, 2026, as flames driven by a heatwave, drought and strong winds threatened tourist areas and the outskirts of major cities. As of Saturday morning, July 25, 2026, the situation remained critical, with the fire advancing toward Bordeaux and several fronts near Madrid still out of control.
In France, around 141,000 people were evacuated from the Gironde and Landes departments, according to the Interior Ministry. The hardest-hit area was the Cap Ferret peninsula, a popular stretch of pine forests and beach resorts west of Bordeaux. Thousands of residents and tourists fled by car and by boat after the only road out came under threat. Many waited on piers for water taxis and ferries to carry them across the Bay of Arcachon to safety.
Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez described the main blaze as “completely unprecedented.” Speaking on TF1 on Friday evening, he called it a “convective fire,” one that generates its own wind, shifts direction unpredictably and sustains itself.
“We had never seen anything like this,” he said.
The fire has already burned more than 14,000 hectares in Gironde and destroyed dozens of homes. It is now moving inland toward the Bordeaux metropolitan area. Nuñez stressed that the city itself is not yet under direct threat but added: “We will do everything to protect it.”
President Emmanuel Macron ordered the military to provide “maximum reinforcement” to civilian firefighters. By late Friday, about 1,000 soldiers were being deployed and 1.5 million protective masks were sent to the region. France also activated the European Union’s civil protection mechanism, bringing in water-bombing aircraft from Croatia and Portugal as well as heavy-lift helicopters from the Czech Republic and Slovakia.
Read Also:
FIFA Confirms 2026 World Cup Final on July 19 Despite New York Wildfire Smoke
In Spain, authorities declared a national emergency for the first time over wildfires after several blazes near Madrid merged into a single, fast-moving front. Around 60,000 people in the Madrid region and neighboring Ávila province were either evacuated or ordered to remain indoors, according to Spain’s Interior Ministry.
Regional president Isabel Díaz Ayuso called it “the worst wildfire in the history of the Community of Madrid,” describing the mix of extreme temperatures and relentless winds as a “perfect storm.”
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez labelled the overall situation “dramatic” and was scheduled to visit the emergency coordination center on Saturday. Officials said the fire west of the capital was “at its peak” and, in places, beyond the capacity of firefighters to contain.
No civilian deaths have been reported in either country from these fires, though dozens of firefighters have been injured. The crisis is unfolding amid another severe heatwave across southern Europe, with scientists linking the growing intensity of such blazes to climate change and prolonged drought.
As of Saturday morning, firefighters continued battling multiple active blazes, with further evacuations under way near Bordeaux as both France and Spain relied on support from European partners.
