More than 200,000 people have fled or been ordered to lock down as wildfires swept across Spain and France, with Madrid declaring a national emergency and French authorities ordering the total evacuation of the Cap Ferret peninsula.
In south-west France, the Cap Ferret peninsula was being evacuated "village by village" as an intense and highly unpredictable wildfire burned through more than 19,000 hectares of forest. Around 110,000 people had been evacuated in two days, including thousands of holidaymakers, with boats ferrying people from piers as the blaze threatened to cut off the only access road. Over 800 firefighters and four water-bombing planes were battling the fire, which began near Saumos, west of Bordeaux. Eighty houses have burned.
A second fire near Biscarrosse burned through more than 2,500 hectares and led to 31,000 evacuations, with more than 600 firefighters trying to contain it. The Gironde prefecture described the situation as "highly dynamic and unfavourable". One elderly forest owner, Jean Mazodier, told Le Monde: "I've seen plenty of fires before, but never one of this intensity. Everything's burned. It's like losing a child."
In Spain, the government declared its first national emergency for a wildfire as two large blazes merged outside Madrid and a third threatened to join them. More than 63,000 people were evacuated or confined in the capital region and neighbouring province of Ávila. Madrid's regional leader, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, described an "unprecedented situation: a perfect storm of extremely high temperatures and relentless winds".
France's president, Emmanuel Macron, activated the EU's civil protection mechanism, with reinforcements expected from Croatia, Portugal, the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Interior minister Laurent Nuñez said 32 wildfires were burning, with 50,000 hectares scorched so far this year — nearly four times the total by the same date last year. Scientists say climate breakdown is triggering more frequent and extreme weather events, with Europe heating at about twice the global average rate.
