Manuel Ausloos and David Latona July 27, 2026 — 2:34 a.m. Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from your saved list to add more. TOTOTO Bordeaux/Madrid: Forest fires advanced on Sunday towards the outskirts of the historic French city of Bordeaux, in the heart of the country’s vineyards, as
Manuel Ausloos and David Latona
Bordeaux/Madrid: Forest fires advanced on Sunday towards the outskirts of the historic French city of Bordeaux, in the heart of the country’s vineyards, as France and Spain battled fires that have already forced the evacuation of hundreds of thousands of people.
About 220,000 people have been evacuated in France, while in Spain more than 75,000 people have had to leave their homes and about 30,000 more have been ordered to shelter in place, authorities said.
In France, fires have devastated the Cap Ferret peninsula on the Atlantic coast, a popular tourist destination, and have spread to the area around Bordeaux, where firefighters were trying to prevent the flames from reaching the regional capital.
“The fire occurs about 15 kilometers from the entry points to the main city,” Bordeaux Mayor Thomas Cazenave said on Sunday, while Interior Minister Laurent Núñez said in X that the situation remained “difficult.”
Images released by French police showed officers knocking on doors at night in the municipalities of Marcheprime and Cestas to evacuate houses one by one.
In Spain, Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez visited fire-affected areas in Ávila, one of three central provinces affected by major fires along with Madrid and Toledo, where more than 45,000 hectares (111,000 acres) have burned.
Spain fights multiple fires
Another fire in the eastern Spanish province of Castellón has devastated more than 4,300 hectares, regional authorities said.
“The fire is out of control, it is very difficult to extinguish it from a technical point of view, especially due to the adverse weather conditions that will continue throughout the day,” the regional leader of Valencia, Juanfran Pérez, told reporters near the scene.
The fire has entered the Sierra de Espadán natural park, which contains large pine and cork oak forests.
The fires are the latest disasters linked to prolonged droughts and successive heat waves that scientists say have been intensified by climate change.
In both Bordeaux and Avila, July high temperatures have averaged 32 degrees Celsius, nearly 6 degrees above the month’s normal high between 1961 and 1990, according to Reuters Climate Monitor.
International aid mobilized
Under the European Union’s civil protection mechanism, Greece and Italy have each sent two Canadair firefighting planes to Spain, while Portugal has deployed more than 100 military personnel along with equipment.
Two more planes will arrive “as soon as possible” from Türkiye, the Spanish Interior Ministry said in X.
Sánchez said his government would declare a civil protection emergency on Tuesday for central provinces affected by the wildfires, unlocking additional funds for recovery.
More than 150,000 hectares have been burned across Spain since January, he said, six times the area destroyed during the same period last year.
While wildfires have long been a feature of summers in Spain, Sánchez said their increasing scale and intensity, fueled by increasingly extreme weather, required policies based on climate science.
More fires in Scotland and Italy
In the Scottish highlands, up to 500 firefighters have been tackling a large fire in the Cairngorms National Park since July 15.
Residents of the village of Nethy Bridge, who were evacuated on Friday night after a change in weather conditions, were allowed to return to their homes on Saturday night.
In Italy, several forest fires forced the closure of a southern section of the Rome ring road, as well as a motorway leading to the capital, causing major traffic disruptions.
In the Puglia region of southern Italy, tourists were evacuated from coastal resorts due to a large forest fire in the Gargano area, the national fire department said. Some were taken by sea by the coast guard, the ANSA news agency added.
Pope Leo, speaking from his summer residence of Castel Gandolfo outside Rome, offered spiritual support.
“In the face of the devastating forest fires that have affected several areas of France and Spain in recent days, I wish to express my solidarity and closeness, and I invite everyone to pray for those affected and for the first responders participating in the relief efforts,” he said.
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