Wildfires Force Over 300,000 to Evacuate Across France and Spain

(WS News) – Wildfires raging across France and Spain have forced more than 300,000 people to evacuate their homes in what officials in France have described as the country’s largest peacetime evacuation since World War II.

In France, roughly 50,000 people were evacuated overnight into the weekend from the Gironde region near Bordeaux, according to Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez, with fires continuing to burn amid worsening drought conditions following a prolonged heatwave and water shortages across much of the country. An additional 8,000 people were evacuated near Bordeaux itself, and authorities closed all forest areas in the southern Var region to the public due to fire hazard. Bordeaux residents have been grappling with heavy smoke and poor air quality, with some voluntarily fleeing the city even without a formal evacuation order in place.

In Spain, wildfires have forced tens of thousands more to evacuate or shelter across the Madrid region and Ávila province, with two major blazes threatening to merge along a roughly 14-kilometer stretch near San Martín de Valdeiglesias. At least one person has died: a 78-year-old man with reduced mobility who was caught in a blaze near his orchard in Manises, northwest of Valencia. Spain’s Military Emergency Unit has taken command of firefighting efforts in the region, while two Greek firefighting aircraft were deployed under the European Union’s Civil Protection Mechanism to assist.

French President Emmanuel Macron chaired a government crisis meeting focused on the wildfires, and Britain’s Prince William called the fires sweeping Spain, France, and the United Kingdom a “stark reminder” of the challenges posed by an increasingly extreme climate. With no significant rain forecast and temperatures expected to climb again this week, officials in both countries warned that conditions remain difficult to predict.