Authorities in Spain and France have evacuated nearly 200,000 residents and tourists as firefighters work to contain large wildfires near Madrid and in the country’s southwest, according to officials. The French government requested international assistance on Saturday, while Spanish officials cited challenging weather conditions that were complicating firefighting efforts.
In France, more than 141,000 people have been evacuated from the Gironde and Landes regions in the southwest, French Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu said in a statement. On Saturday, Lecornu wrote on the social media platform X that the fires “have reached a level that has never been seen before.” The French army has been deployed to assist in the response.
Sophie Brocas, a local administrator for the Nouvelle-Aquitaine et de la Gironde region which includes Bordeaux, confirmed that authorities ordered evacuations in the suburbs of Le Haillan, Eysines, and Merignac.
On the Cap Ferret peninsula, a coastal area south of Bordeaux, approximately 44,000 people were evacuated. Officials reported that the only road providing access to the peninsula was threatened by the fire. Boats were used to move hundreds of people from the area. More than 50 houses on the peninsula have been destroyed, according to local authorities.
In Spain, officials said around 25,000 people have been evacuated from areas near Madrid. Carlos Novillo, the emergency management chief for the Madrid regional government, said on Saturday that a wildfire west of the capital was “at its peak and is currently beyond the capacity of firefighters to contain.” Novillo stated that erratic winds were a primary factor hindering containment.
According to Spanish emergency services, two separate wildfires near the capital combined on Friday to form a single, larger blaze. Officials warned it was close to merging with another fire in the adjacent Castilla y Leon region. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez was scheduled to attend an emergency planning meeting Saturday morning in Cenicientos, a village at the center of the affected area.
The World Weather Attribution group, in a study published this week, reported that multiple heatwaves and drought conditions in parts of Europe have contributed to an increased threat from wildfires this year.
