Authorities are battling to contain a huge wildfire near Bordeaux in south-west France that has consumed an area of land four times the size of Paris.
Efforts to extinguish the blaze in the Gironde region, where nearly ۲۲۰,۰۰۰ people have been evacuated, were hampered by windy conditions on Saturday night.
In Spain, fires west of Madrid were being brought under control, but the prime minister, Pedro Sánchez spoke of “difficult hours” ahead, saying the country was suffering the effects of the climate emergency.
Wildfires have forced more than ۳۷۵,۰۰۰ people to flee their homes in France and Spain.
Bordeaux’s mayor, Thomas Cazenave, described the Gironde blaze as being “at the gates of the metropolitan area”, between ۱۵ and ۲۰ miles (۲۵ and ۳۰km) from the city itself, which has a population of ۲۶۸,۰۰۰. An evacuation of the city was not on the cards, he said.
Nearly ۲۶۰,۰۰۰ people have been evacuated across France as a whole, including ۳۶,۰۰۰ ordered to leave another wildfire zone in the Landes region further south earlier this week.
The country’s interior minister, Laurent Nuñez, said on Sunday that the previous night had been difficult and “the situation remains very unfavourable”. He said the Gironde fire had become “extremely virulent and unpredictable again” early on Saturday night, generating its own wind and spreading erratically towards the Bordeaux metropolitan area. It had become calmer by the end of the night, he said.
About ۲,۵۰۰ firefighters, including a Swiss team, ۱,۵۰۰ military personnel and about ۱,۲۰۰ police had been deployed to Gironde, Nuñez said, as he praised the contribution of ۴۵۰ volunteers from civil security organisations.
He said another five Gironde municipalities had been evacuated overnight.
One firefighter told Agence France-Presse that the fire was so virulent it had formed a pyrocumulonimbus, a fire-generated thunderstorm that “creates its own wind, with whirlwinds, becoming erratic and uncontrollable”.
The French prime minister, Sébastian Lecornu, had warned late on Saturday that the coming hours would be difficult as the weather changed. “France is facing a historic situation,” he wrote on X. “Nearly ۱۰۰,۰۰۰ hectares have already burned, an unprecedented level and around thirty fires are simultaneously active across the territory.”
Three men were arrested in Gironde on Saturday on suspicion of endangering lives. Two of them were accused of setting off fireworks.
Authorities in Spain said major areas of fire near Madrid had been contained, but Sánchez said: “We’re facing some difficult hours, although it’s true that the latest update has shown that last night was very positive in terms of the fire’s evolution and efforts to control it.”
He said Spain and neighbouring Portugal were experiencing the varied consequences of the climate emergency, from fires and storms to heavy snowfalls. “The entire Iberian peninsula is suffering the effects of the climate emergency in a very specific way,” he said.
Major areas of the fire near Madrid had been “contained and cooled down”, according to a senior officer with Spain’s military emergencies unit.
Lt Col Alfonso Arribas told the state broadcaster, RTVE, on Sunday morning that important strides had been made in containing the blaze.
While the fire near Madrid was being brought under control, emergency workers battled to extinguish a new fire near the Mediterannean port city of Valencia, where at least ۱۵,۰۰۰ people were evacuated. “The fire is beyond our capacity to extinguish, it has a perimeter of about ۲۱ kilometres,” the Valencia region’s president, Juanfran Pérez Llorca, said late on Saturday.
Authorities also ordered the evacuation of eight more municipalities near Toledo south of Madrid on Saturday, bringing the number of people forced to flee their homes by wildfires in Spain in recent days to ۱۱۶,۰۰۰. The situation prompted the government to declare a national emergency over a wildfire for the first time.
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Spain’s interior ministry said on Saturday evening that a man had died in a fire in the Valencian town of Manises. He had been found in a car in a ravine, officials said.
The blazes are the latest episode in a summer of wildfires that threaten to burn an unprecedented expanse of land. Europe has endured a series of heatwaves since the spring, fuelled by the climate crisis, including the hottest-ever June, leaving vegetation tinder dry.
The EU commissioner for crisis management, Hadja Lahbib, told the BBC it was likely that damage from wildfires would exceed previous records. “Last year, one million hectares burned during the summer and so we are expecting to face another historical, sad record because the season has started earlier in the year,” she said.
“Forecasters are predicting, unfortunately, another heatwave so we can expect other wildfires.”
Spain’s environment ministry said ۳۲ major fires affecting ۱۵۲,۶۷۸ hectares had been recorded so far in ۲۰۲۶, compared with seven affecting ۲۴,۱۳۳ hectares in the same period in ۲۰۲۵.
The Gironde fire in France has so far burned ۴۲,۰۰۰ hectares, an area four times the size of Paris and one of the biggest devastations of land since the second world war.
At least ۲۴۰ homes had been destroyed and many more damaged, a gendarme told BFMTV.
Firefighters are battling to slow the fire’s progression toward Bordeaux from the ground and air, with planes dropping water and retardants. Jérôme Steffe, the mayor of Cestas commune, ۱۰ miles from Bordeaux city centre, told French media: “We are working together to put in place a firewall to block the advance of the flames.”
An exhibition centre in Bordeaux has been turned into an emergency shelter, providing camp beds and food for thousands of people, including hundreds of older people evacuated from care homes.
Cazenave said he had asked the central government for an economic crisis plan for the area because many businesses and workers had been evacuated from areas west of Bordeaux and the tourism industry had been heavily affected. He said it was impossible to say when people evacuated as a precaution could return to their homes.
“We don’t know how long this crisis will last, whether several days or several weeks,” he said.
The Landes fire has consumed ۳,۶۰۰ hectares and a rekindling of flames on Saturday had to be tackled from the air Nuñez said. French authorities are also dealing with wildfires in the south-eastern Var region, where ۳,۰۰۰ people have been evacuated, as well as the High Alps and Corsica.
