đ´ Live: Southwestern France wildfire forces 44,000 to evacuate, destroys 12,500 hectares of forest
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By: Simon FEISTHAUER FOURNET Plumes of smoke from wildfires at the seaside resort of Lacanau-Ocean, in southwestern France, on July 24, 2026. Š Jan Athmann, dpa via Reuters At least 44,000 were evacuated from southwestern France over the past two days as wildfires continued to sweep through the region and destroyed 12,500 hectares of forest, the local prefect said Friday. Spainâs government declared a national emergency over wildfires there as hundreds of firefighters backed by water-bombing planes battled the blazes fanned by scorching temperatures and strong winds. Follow our liveblog for the latest developments.
Spanish police have said they have arrested a man for allegedly setting off a vast fire in the Madrid region by using a farm vehicle despite a ban in the tinderbox conditions.
Another person was under investigation for the same incident, the Guardia Civil said on X, stating: "The cause that started (the fire) was a seriously negligent act through the use of heavy machinery in the area, where it was totally prohibited."
Spanish authorities have ordered the evacuation of 7,000 more people from two new localities west of Madrid that are threatened by wildfires.
Emergency messages were sent to the phones of people in the two villages affected. The evacuations come on top of 19,000 people in the Madrid region already told to leave their villages or remain in their homes with windows and doors sealed because of the fires.
"There is little time left" before the major 6,000-hectare fire in the Madrid region "merges" with the 9,000-hectare fire in Castile and LeĂłn, the regional governor of Castile said.
âThis is very bad news,â added Nicanor Sen VĂŠlez during a press briefing, referring to the fire in Ăvila, in Castile and LeĂłn, and the fire in the Madrid region, which initially consisted of several separate blazes that have now merged to form a single fire, driven by strong winds and high temperatures.
On Friday, firefighters in France's Var department were called out several times to the Pontevès fire, on the fourth day of their operations to tackle the blaze, which has spread across 2,700 hectares and has not yet been âcontainedâ.
These flare-ups are âfanned by the south-easterly windâ, according to the local fire department.
They âthreaten the villages of Pontevès and Barjolsâ, stated the Var prefecture, adding that evacuation notices had been sent to residents of certain neighbourhoods in both villages.
The fire raging to the north of the Arcachon Bay area has already âdestroyedâ more than 12,500 hectares of forest and led to the evacuation of 44,000 people in two days, the Gironde prefecture said.
âWeather conditions remain unfavourable, with wind gusts expected to reach up to 80 km/h and dry thunderstorms that could break out locally,â the prefecture emphasised in its latest update.
The initial evacuations mainly involved tourists, but thousands of residents are now having to flee the shores of the Arcachon Basin, which are threatened by a blaze covering 10,000 hectares, gripped by the anxiety of having to leave their homes.
In a sports hall in Andernos-les-Bains, evacuees from the towns of Lège-Cap-Ferret and Le Porge have found refuge, food and drink, and a little comfort.
But amongst them is Maria Lalanne, a 90-year-old lady from Lège who has no family to help her; she seems shaken by the events. In the rush to leave, she had to leave her hearing aid and glasses at home.
âI have heart problems, high blood pressure, and eye problemsâ, she told AFP. âI donât know how long this will last. I donât know what state my house is in, whether itâs burnt down ⌠Yesterday, the trees behind it were starting to catch fire.â
Two of the three wind-fuelled wildfires burning west of Madrid had merged into a single blaze, regional emergency services wrote on X.
Officials had earlier said the main priority for firefighters was to prevent the fires' "convergence".
From the Temple of Debod park, on the western edge of central Madrid overlooking the city's outskirts, a thick plume of grey smoke could be seen rising above the horizon as wildfires burnt about 60 kilometres (40 miles) away.
At least 19,000 people in the Madrid region have been evacuated or ordered to remain indoors due to wildfires that have become the worst in the region's history, regional president Isabel Diaz Ayuso said.
The fires in the densely populated area around the Spanish capital have burned around 6,000 hectares (15,000 acres), Ayuso told reporters.
She said that while an area of this size being burnt in other, more rural regions "would not be considered so significant", in Madrid "with such a high concentration of homes and people, it is a catastrophe".
The Spanish government â has declared a national emergency after a series of wildfires in the Madrid region and in the province of Avila, near the capital, late on Thursday. The measure aims to speed up the deployment of resources to fight the blazes, which have forced some 10,000 people in the region to evacuate.
According to Spanish authorities, "not enough has been done" by the government to contain and prevent these fires, which are no longer a temporary emergency.
FRANCE 24's correspondent Sarah Morris reports the latest from Madrid.
The Gironde region around Bordeaux is once again battling major wildfires, four years after a devastating blaze swept through the area.
A combination of high-risk factors, including vast forests of maritime pine, persistent drought and heavy tourist traffic, has made the region especially vulnerable to fast-moving fires.
The European Union has deployed four firefighting aircraft to Spain and three to France to help tackle multiple wildfires, a spokeswoman said.
"We obviously hope that all hell will not break loose but we are preparing for a severe situation," EU spokeswoman Anna-Kaisa Itkonen said.
Deadly forest fires have been raging across Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia for more than a week, as an ongoingâŚ
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