Caroline Blumberg, Samuel Petrequin and Joseph Wilson
Archacon, France – Massive forest fires forced the evacuation of some 200,000 people in south-western France and central Spain on Friday, with residents fleeing towns near Madrid and Bordeaux as the flames raged out of control.
Firefighters and authorities in both countries were caught off guard by the violence of the fires, which were fuelled by high temperatures and the long-term effects of climate change. Firefighters in Spain admitted the fires were so fast that they could not be tackled head-on. Some people even fled by boat when flames swept through the tourist area on France’s Atlantic coast.
From a beach in Arcachon, locals and holidaymakers watch in astonishment as the fire rages on the other side of the bay, in Lège-Cap-Ferret. Hans Lucas via AFP
In France, some 141,000 fled homes in the departments of Gironde and Landes, the interior ministry said. The Spanish counterpart reported that in central Spain, 60,000 were forced from their homes.
Dozens of French firefighters were injured, authorities said. No deaths were reported in either country despite the scenes of panic as townsfolk fled by car and police went door to door advising residents to leave as large plumes of smoke rose from neighbouring woodlands.
Wildfire headed towards Bordeaux
France’s Interior Minister Laurent Nunez said that the large wildfire that ravaged large swaths of land in the southwest had turned inland towards the city of Bordeaux.
On French TV channel Tf1, Nunez said the wildfire that earlier in the day forced the evacuation of the Cap Ferret peninsula had burnt 140 square kilometres, with 110,000 people fleeing their homes in the Gironde region.
“We learned in the middle of the afternoon that, following the wind shift, it had become a large, self-sustaining fire that is extremely difficult to bring under control,” Nunez said.
“It is now moving east, towards the Bordeaux metropolitan area. We are going to reorganise our response so we can fight it from the ground and prevent it from advancing.”
Meanwhile, French President Emmanuel Macron has asked the Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu to activate the government’s crisis response unit, and has ordered the armed forces to mobilise to provide the maximum possible reinforcement for civilian emergency services.
“This fire that we have been living with and fighting against here in Gironde for three days has reached an unprecedented magnitude,” said Sophie Brocas, the prefect of Nouvelle-Aquitaine. “To combat it, we will receive extremely significant national reinforcements.”
The blaze started on Wednesday near Cap Ferret peninsula on France’s Atlantic coast, 60 kilometres from Bordeaux.
Gironde authorities said 53 homes and a campsite were destroyed, and 42 firefighters were injured. About 1500 people who fled the peninsula crossed the bay to Arcachon, some aboard water taxis and others on larger boats.
“It’s quite impressive and even frightening,” said Laurent Moretti, a resident of bayside Arès. “An evacuation on this scale has never happened before. All we really hope is that the firefighters can quickly get it under control.”
A separate wildfire broke out in Landes to the south, causing 31,000 evacuations. French authorities believe the cause of both of fires was accidental.
More than 20,000 people had been evacuated from towns and vacation resorts by Thursday, but that number exploded on Friday as France and Spain sought help from fellow European Union members.
Macron said France’s reinforcements would include two Croatian Canadair firefighting aircraft, two Portuguese Air Tractor aircraft, and two heavy-lift Black Hawk helicopters from the Czech Republic and Slovakia.
Spanish Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska said that Italy and Greece are each sending two Canadair water-dumping airplanes, while 1000 Spanish soldiers helped firefighting efforts.
Devastating summer in Spain
In Spain, the government declared a national emergency for wildfires for the first time as the blazes in Madrid and the nearby province of Ávila prompted the evacuation of some 60,000 people from towns west of the capital.
“I want to send a message of support to the thousands of families who face a difficult night ahead,” Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, who will visit the fire-ravaged area on Saturday, wrote on X.
The fires are being fanned by a heatwave with temperatures expected to top 39 degrees.
Two major fires near Madrid merged into one single blaze that had quickly charred 30 square kilometres by Friday afternoon. Regional President Isabel Díaz-Ayuso called it the worst in Madrid’s history.
Francisco Martín, the central government representative for the Madrid region, said that another 20,000 people had been ordered to shelter at home. Martín said more evacuations could be coming and that the priority now was to protect the town of San Lorenzo, the home of the Escorial, Philip II’s 16th-century royal palace and monastery.
Meanwhile, a blaze in Ávila, less than two hours north-west of Madrid, consumed 90 square kilometres. The Civil Guard arrested one man and is investigating another for allegedly having used heavy machinery in an area where it was prohibited for fire risk. Police believe a spark ignited the fire on Thursday.
“All around the town was smoke and fire, I was scared. Everything was fire and smoke, people were nervous,” 33-year-old Joaquin Espinosa said before he and his neighbours were evacuated from the village of Chapinería.
In one week, Spain has had the worst fires on record for the regions of Castilla La Mancha and Madrid.
Firefighters were still trying to extinguish Spain’s second-largest fire to date in the Guadalajara province of Castilla-La Mancha after it had destroyed some 320 square kilometres over the past week. Thirteen people were also killed in a fire in southern Spain earlier this month, the deadliest fire in recent memory for Spain.
Sara Aagesen, Spain’s Minister for the Ecological Transition, said the country had lost 1140 square kilometres to fires so far this year, more than five times the losses in the first half of 2025.
Spain’s recent summers have had record temperatures and forest fires of increasing violence. Wildfire analyst Raúl Quílez said that beyond the impact of climate change, Spain’s rural areas have become more exposed to fires as now-abandoned farmlands once provided buffer zones around villages. Trees and undergrowth that often reach homes put them in harm’s way.
“That makes a perfect cocktail for this type of fire,” Quílez told The Associated Press by phone from Valencia, where he works as an analyst for regional firefighters.
AP
