Wildfires near Bordeaux and Madrid forced nearly 2 lakh people from their homes. The fast-moving blazes pushed France and Spain to seek wider European support amid a severe heatwave.
Massive wildfires in south-western France and central Spain forced about 2,00,000 people to leave their homes on Friday, as flames spread rapidly near Bordeaux and Madrid. Authorities in both countries said the fires were burning out of control, driven by high temperatures and the long-term effects of climate change.
Firefighters said the speed and intensity of the blazes had caught them off guard. In Spain, crews said some fires were moving so fast and so violently that they could not be tackled head on. Despite scenes of panic, with residents fleeing by car, police going door to door and some people escaping by boat on France’s Atlantic coast, no deaths were reported in either country. Dozens of firefighters were injured in France.
In France, 1,41,000 people fled their homes in the Gironde and Landes departments, according to the interior ministry. Interior Minister Laurent Nunez said the large fire in south-western France was heading towards Bordeaux after sweeping across 140 sq km and forcing 1,10,000 people to leave the Gironde region. Speaking to French TV channel Tf1, he said, “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. It is now moving east, toward the Bordeaux metropolitan area. We are going to reorganise our response so we can fight it from the ground and prevent it from advancing toward Bordeaux.”
French President Emmanuel Macron asked Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu to activate the government’s crisis response unit and instructed the armed forces to mobilise to reinforce civilian emergency services. Sophie Brocas, the Nouvelle Aquitaine prefect, said, “This fire that we have been living with and fighting against here in Gironde for three days has reached an unprecedented magnitude. To combat it, we will receive extremely significant national reinforcements.” The blaze began on Wednesday near the Cap Ferret peninsula, about 60 km from Bordeaux. Local authorities said 53 homes and a campsite were destroyed, and 42 firefighters were injured.
About 1,500 people who fled the peninsula reached Arcachon by sea, travelling on small water taxis and larger boats. Laurent Moretti, a resident of Ars, said, “It’s quite impressive and even frightening. 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 in Landes led to 31,000 evacuations. Authorities believe both fires in France were accidental. After more than 20,000 people had already been evacuated on Thursday, France sought help from European Union partners. Macron said France would receive two Croatian Canadair firefighting aircraft, two Portuguese Air Tractor aircraft, and two heavy-lift Black Hawk helicopters from the Czech Republic and Slovakia.
In Spain, 60,000 people were forced from their homes, according to the interior ministry, as the government declared a national emergency for wildfires for the first time. The blazes in Madrid and the nearby province of Avila led to evacuations from towns west of the capital. Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska said Italy and Greece were each sending two Canadair water-dumping planes, while 1,000 Spanish soldiers were helping firefighting efforts. Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, who is due to visit the affected area on Saturday, wrote on X: “I want to send a message of support to the thousands of families who face a difficult night ahead.”
The fires were being fanned by a heat wave, with temperatures expected to rise above 39 degrees Celsius. Two major fires near Madrid merged into a single blaze and had burned 30 sq km by Friday afternoon. Regional President Isabel Daz-Ayuso called it the worst fire in Madrid’s history. Francisco Martn, the central government’s representative for the Madrid region, said another 20,000 people had been ordered to stay indoors and warned that more evacuations could follow. He said the priority was to protect the town of San Lorenzo, home to the Escorial, the 16th-century royal palace and monastery of Philip II.
In Avila, less than two hours north-west of Madrid, another fire burned through 90 sq km. Spain’s Civil Guard arrested one man and was investigating another over the alleged use of heavy machinery in an area where such work was banned because of fire risk. Police believe a spark started the fire on Thursday. Joaquin Espinosa, 33, said before he and his neighbours were evacuated from Chapinera, “All around the town was smoke and fire, I was scared. Everything was fire and smoke, people were nervous.”
Spain has recorded the worst fires on record in the regions of Castilla La Mancha and Madrid in the past week. Firefighters were still battling Spain’s second-largest ever fire in Guadalajara province in Castilla La Mancha after it destroyed about 320 sq km over the last week. Earlier this month, 13 people were killed in a fire in southern Spain, the country’s deadliest in recent memory. Ecological Transition Minister Sara Aagesen said 1,140 sq km had already burned in Spain this year, more than five times the area burned in the first half of 2025. Wildfire analyst Raul Qulez said that, apart from climate change, the abandonment of farmland in rural Spain had removed buffer zones around villages. “That makes a perfect cocktail for this type of fires,” he told The Associated Press by phone from Valencia.
As France and Spain battled fast-moving wildfires with help from European partners, nearly 2,00,000 people were displaced, large areas of land were burned and emergency services remained focused on slowing the spread of the flames towards major population centres.
With PTI Inputs
