{"id":35157,"date":"2026-07-25T15:25:31","date_gmt":"2026-07-25T15:25:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gsrra.com\/?p=35157"},"modified":"2026-07-25T15:25:31","modified_gmt":"2026-07-25T15:25:31","slug":"thousands-flee-wildfires-in-france-and-spain-as-temperatures-reach-extreme-levels-in-southern-europe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gsrra.com\/?p=35157","title":{"rendered":"Thousands flee wildfires in France and Spain as temperatures reach extreme levels in southern Europe"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

France asks the EU for help while Spain declares a national emergency around Madrid, as a marine heatwave sees parts of the Mediterranean Sea 5 \u00b0C hotter than normal<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Brutal heat torching southern\u00a0Europe<\/a>\u00a0has forced about 30,000 people to flee wildfires in France and Spain as a marine heatwave scalds the Mediterranean, and researchers warn that \u201cDantesque\u201d scenarios cannot be ruled out as infernos worsen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

France has requested assistance from \u2060the European Union to help it deal \u2060with a \u2060major \u200bwildfire near the country\u2019s Atlantic coast, while Spain has declared a national emergency in the Madrid region and in the province of Avila because of several wildfires burning out of control.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

President \u2060Emmanuel Macron on Friday wrote on X that the situation remained \u201cextremely tense\u201d with \u2060the fires particularly bad \u200bin Gironde in southwestern France.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFrance has requested the activation \u200cof the European Union\u2019s civil protection mechanism. We will soon be able to count on reinforcements from two Croatian Canadair \u200caircraft, two Portuguese Air Tractor planes, as well as \u200btwo heavy Black Hawk helicopters from the Czech Republic and Slovakia,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The fire on France\u2019s Atlantic coast prompted the evacuation of more than 18,800 people, including thousands of tourists from campsites and holiday homes, as firefighters struggled to control the blaze.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Thousands
Thousands evacuated in south of France as wildfire rages across pine forest \u2013 video<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Spain late Thursday declared a national emergency in the Madrid region and in the province of Avila, near the capital, in the wake of several wildfires burning out of control.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Around the Madrid region, the fires have forced the evacuation of 10,000 people, placing the response to the crisis in the hands of a military emergency unit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe government has deployed every available resource to stop the terrible fires currently affecting numerous areas: Avila, Leon, Toledo, Madrid and other parts of Spain,\u201d Prime Minister Pedro S\u00e1nchez said earlier on X, urging the public to exercise \u201cgreat caution\u201d and heed instructions from authorities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Almost 125,000 hectares have already been burnt in Spain this year compared with 393,000 for the whole of last year, according to the European Forest Fire Information System.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Extreme highs of 44.7 \u00b0C were recorded on Thursday in Cieza, in the Spanish province of Murcia, according to Aemet, the Spanish meteorological agency. The previous day, the Spanish cities of Albacete, \u00c1vila and Teruel broke their July temperature records with heat as high as 42C.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A marine heatwave is affecting 80% of the Mediterranean Sea\u2019s surface area, according to the Mediterranean Monitoring System. Daily temperatures on Tuesday had reached \u201cextreme\u201d levels in several parts, with some anomalies 5C hotter than the average from 1991 to 2020.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The severity of fires in the EU has broken records for this time of year, data from the European Forest Fire Information System showed on Wednesday, and about twice as much land had burned by 22 July as the average for that date over the last two decades. France has broken records for the area burned; it and Spain have broken records for the number of fires.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"People<\/a>
People look at the sky illuminated by wildfires in Le Porge, south-west France, on Thursday. Photograph: Romain Perrocheau\/AFP\/Getty<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"A<\/a>
A man rests with his dog in a community hall on a camp bed in Le Porge. Photograph: Romain Perrocheau\/AFP\/Getty<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The fire in France began in a dense pine forest near the village of Saumos about 40km (25 miles) west of Bordeaux and just north of the bay of Arcachon, a popular tourist destination. It had burned more than 3,700 hectares (9,140 acres) in a little over 24 hours, firefighters said on Thursday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

No casualties had been reported but several houses had succumbed to the flames, they said. The Gironde prefecture said that while 800 firefighters and four water-bombing planes were battling to bring the fire under control, the situation remained \u201cunfavourable\u201d and the blaze was not yet stabilised.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe fire is highly erratic and gaining very significant force,\u201d said Marc Vermeulen, the regional fire service chief, on Thursday evening. \u201cOne of the main fronts is very close to a semi-urban area. We are defending house by house.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

France has endured three almost back-to-back heatwaves since May as climate breakdown leads to more frequent and extreme weather events causing thousands of excess deaths<\/a>, evaporating soils and waterways<\/a> and fuelling wildfires.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Patrick Martineau, 69, who was evacuated from the village of Le Porge, told Agence France-Presse that police had \u201ccome banging on the doors \u2026 It\u2019s scary \u2013 hard to take in. When we bought a home here, we never thought there\u2019d be a fire risk.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Large<\/a>
Smoke rising from the wildfire in Saumos is photographed from Ar\u00e8s on Wednesday. Photograph: Romain Perrocheau\/AFP\/Getty<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Sylvie, a holidaymaker from Paris staying in the relatively more built-up area of L\u00e8ge-Cap-Ferret, said a neighbour had told her: \u201c\u2018Get your bags ready, we\u2019re going to be evacuated during the night.\u2019 We put the bulk of our stuff in the car boot and left.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Elke Urbain, from Antwerp in Belgium, who holidays in the area every year, said she was advised while she was on the beach on Wednesday afternoon to \u201cgo back immediately to the campsite and gather your things. It\u2019s just terribly sad.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2022, a wildfire burned more than 30,000 hectares in the same area<\/a>, forcing about 50,000 people to be evacuated. In tinder-dry conditions and fanned by a strong wind, the latest blaze has torn through the forest, with flames reaching 10 metres high.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reference Link:- https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2026\/jul\/23\/people-evacuated-intense-wildfire-saumos-france<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

France asks the EU for help while Spain declares a national emergency around Madrid, as a marine heatwave sees parts of the Mediterranean Sea 5 \u00b0C hotter than normal Brutal heat torching southern\u00a0Europe\u00a0has forced about 30,000 people to flee wildfires in France and Spain as a marine heatwave scalds the Mediterranean, and researchers warn that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6779,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"aside","meta":{"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2],"tags":[7481,24042,360,1404,29791,1513,32425],"class_list":["post-35157","post","type-post","status-publish","format-aside","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sample-category","tag-climate-change-2","tag-environment-3","tag-europe-2","tag-france-2","tag-heatwave","tag-spain","tag-wildfires","post_format-post-format-aside"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gsrra.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35157","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gsrra.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gsrra.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gsrra.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gsrra.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=35157"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gsrra.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35157\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35158,"href":"https:\/\/gsrra.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35157\/revisions\/35158"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gsrra.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6779"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gsrra.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=35157"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gsrra.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=35157"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gsrra.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=35157"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}