National emergency declared as wildfires sweep tourist hotspots, 92,000 evacuated
About 92,000 have been forced to evacuate as out-of-control wildfires continue to sweep through southwestern France and central Spain.
Spain has declared a national emergency for the first time, as two blazes merged close to Madrid, the nation’s capital.
Firefighters attempt to extinguish a wildfire as it approaches houses. Pablo Blazquez Dominguez
On France’s Atlantic coast, some residents and tourists were even forced to flee by boat as flames engulfed the popular Cap Ferret peninsula.
While no deaths have been reported in either country, dozens of firefighters have been injured battling the flames.
It has been reported that 125 square kilometres have been consumed by the blaze that has continued to grow near Cap Ferret since Thursday.
The area located 60 kilometres from Bordeaux is a peninsula known for its scenery, including scenic beaches, oyster-farming villages and resorts.
About 67,000 residents in France have since fled a larger area after authorities ordered the evacuation further following the growth of a separate wildfire in the nation’s south.
“It’s quite impressive and even frightening,” Laurent Moretti, a resident in the town of Ares said.
Young people try to extinguish a fire outside a house as wildfires surround a Spanish village. Pablo Blazquez Dominguez
“An evacuation on this scale has never happened before. All we really hope is that the firefighters can quickly get it under control.”
On Friday, more than 20,000 people had already been evacuated from towns and vacations, with some being rescued by boat shuttles.
Local authorities in the Gironde department said 53 homes and a campsite had already been ripped through by flames, with at least 42 firefighters injured.
About 1500 people who fled the peninsula arrived to Arcachon, a seaside city in France’s southwest, on small water taxis and larger boats.
The EU comes to the rescue
Hundreds of French firefighters have been deployed and additional ground and aerial reinforcements were sent Friday to tackle the blaze.
Meanwhile, another major wildfire destroyed 25 square kilometres of land further south down the coast.
It remained uncontained and strong winds hampered the work of firefighters.
Authorities believe the cause of both fires was accidental.
Some 44,000 people have been evacuated in Gironde, and 23,000 in the Landes.
French President Emmanuel Macron said France will receive EU reinforcements including 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.
A seaplane drops water onto the fire as a wildfire advances near La Adrada in Spain. Manu Fernandez
Spain struggles to tackle multiple fires amid a heatwave
In Spain, the government declared a national emergency for wildfires for the first time as the blazes in Madrid and the nearby province of Avila prompted the evacuation of some 25,000 people from towns west of the capital.
The fires are being fanned by a heat wave with temperatures expected to top 39 degrees in parts of Spain.
The 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 region of Madrid, said that another 20,000 people had been ordered to shelter at home in towns west of the capital.
Martin 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 Avila, less than two hours northwest of Madrid, had consumed 90 square kilometres, causing another 1500 people to flee.
Spain’s 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.
Smoke and flames have enveloped the homes of locals and tourist hotspots alike. Many Fernandez
“In my 60 years, I have never seen something like this in my village, I have never seen fire of these dimensions,” Francisco Martínez, the mayor of Burgohondo, whose residents were preventively evacuated in Avila, told Spain’s national broadcaster TVE.
Spanish television showed video taken by retreating residents of walls of flames topped by long plumes of smoke advancing through woods and scrublands.
High winds and hilly terrain complicated efforts by firefighters, who combated the blazes with firetrucks and bulldozers.
“All around the town was smoke and fire, I was scared. Everything was fire and smoke, people were nervous,” 33-year-old Joaquin Espinosa told The Associated Press before he and his neighbours were evacuated from the village of Chapineria, located less than an hour’s drive west of Madrid.
Strong winds complicate efforts
In one week, Spain has had the worst fires on record for both the regions of Castilla La Mancha and Madrid.
Firefighters were still trying to extinguish Spain’s second-largest ever fire in the Guadalajara province of Castilla-La Mancha after it had destroyed some 320 square kilometres over the last week.
Thirteen people were also killed in a fire in southern Spain earlier this month, the deadliest fire in recent memory for Spain.
Spanish Minister for the Ecological Transition Sara Aagesen said that Spain has seen 1140 square kilometres already burned this year, more than five times the burned terrain it had through the first half of 2025.
There were nine other serious fires in other parts of Spain active on Saturday.
A firefighter attempts to extinguish a house fire caused by wildfire in Spain. Pablo Blazquez Dominguez
Sanchez called on Thursday for a pact between political parties to fight climate change that he said is key to adapting to a more fire-prone climate.
Spain has experienced record temperatures in recent summers and forest fires of increasing violence.
Wildfire analyst Raul Quilez said that besides the impact of climate change, Spain’s rural areas have become more exposed to fires with the abandonment of farmlands that traditionally provided buffer zones around villages. Now, he said, trees and undergrowth often reach right to homes, putting them in harm’s way.
“That makes a perfect cocktail for this type of fires,” Quilez told the AP by phone from Valencia, where he works as an analyst for regional firefighters.
Arsonists abuse cats to set fires in Sicily
In Italy, as wildfires ravaged Sicily and other areas, civil protection officials said arsonists were behind some of the blazes and were using cats to help propagate the flames.
The head of the civil protection agency in Calabria, Domenico Costarella, said arsonists had attached rags soaked in flammable liquid to the tails of cats and then set them loose in fields to spread the fire.
Fuelled by temperatures that have topped 40 degrees, low humidity and winds, the blazes have forced scattered evacuations and were blamed for the death of a firefighter responding to a fire in Caltanissetta.
Scientists warn that climate change is exacerbating the frequency and intensity of heat and dryness, especially in southeastern Europe, making the region more vulnerable to wildfires.
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