The forest fires, burning uncontrolled for days in southwestern France and central Spain near Madrid, rank among the worst either country has faced in peacetime.
A firefighter of the Madrid Community battles a wildfire burning near San Martin de Valdeiglesias, about 70km west of Madrid, on July 26, 2026. (Photo by CESAR MANSO / AFP)
France fought an “unpredictable” wildfire close to Bordeaux on Sunday while Spain warned of “difficult hours” in its own fiery battle, with evacuations from danger zones in both countries mounting to well over 300,000 people.
The forest infernos, raging for days unchecked in France’s southwest and in central Spain near Madrid, were among the worst each nation has seen in peacetime.
France’s major fire has caused an unprecedented “pyrocumulonimbus”: a gigantic, untamable fire cloud that creates its own winds and packs lightning that causes more blazes, according to the National Firefighters Federation of France (FNSPF).
“It’s a David-versus-Goliath scenario: the idea is that, at some point, we’ll find a weak spot and strike there,” said FNSPF spokesman Eric Brocardi.
Spanish officials voiced optimism they were starting to get a grip on some of their fires — though on the weekend they were confronted with a new fire front near the eastern coastal city of Valencia, which forced 15,000 people to flee.
“Difficult hours lie ahead, admittedly,” Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said as he visited the fire zone in Avila province west of Madrid.
Other EU countries have been sending help to Spain and France in the form of aircraft, fire crews and vehicles.
Scientists say that such weather emergencies are being made more extreme and frequent by climate change.
The disasters, coming at the peak of the summer vacation period when tourists flock to both countries, were fuelled by woodland parched to tinder by successive heatwaves and lack of rain since May.
“When we flew into Madrid we could see the fire very close to the airport,” said Pilar, a 69-year-old New Zealand tourist who declined to give her last name. She was carrying a mask in case the smoke situation in the city became worse.
Letisha Lucas, a 33-year-old tourist from Canada — which has its own wildfires happening — said the smoke smell was obvious on arrival in Madrid “and very irritating on the throat”. She added that the proximity of the blaze left her “kind of nervous”.
‘Extremely Intense’ Fire
France’s interior minister, Laurent Nunez, warned “the situation remains very unfavourable” for fires across the country, where 250,000 people had been evacuated.
away from the capital for now, but forcing more evacuations of villages in their path.
Hundreds of kilometres away, the new Valencia fire was proving “very intense”, Pilar Bernabe, the central government delegate to Valencia wrote on X.
“Weather conditions are expected to deteriorate as the day progresses, so these hours are being used to battle the flames,” she said.
On Saturday, one person was killed near Valencia in a separate, smaller fire.
That was the only civilian death so far reported in the wildfires. In France the death toll was two firefighters killed near Bordeaux on Tuesday.
Pope Leo IV, in his prayers on Sunday, expressed solidarity with all those affected by the “devastating” Spanish and French fires and called on people to pray for them and for first responders.
