Europe wildfires are driving mass evacuations across France, Spain and Portugal, with one major blaze near Bordeaux burning more than 162 square miles in less than four days. Since mid-July, the fires have pushed more than 300,000 people from their homes as hot, dry weather continues to feed the flames.
In France, the hardest-hit area has been Gironde, where officials say more than 200,000 people have been forced to leave. The fire spread rapidly from July 22 through forests and fields in the country’s well-known wine region, at one point reaching within nine miles of the south of Bordeaux. The city itself was never under serious threat, but the scale and speed of the fire made it one of the most worrying parts of the crisis.
French President Emmanuel Macron visited the affected area and called the fire “completely unprecedented” and the “toughest since World War Two.” In Spain, officials in Madrid said the fires there are the worst the region has ever seen. Francisco Martín, the government delegate in Madrid, described one blaze as “undoubtedly the largest fire in the history of the Madrid region.”
The Europe wildfires have come during a summer of severe heatwaves, and more high temperatures are expected. France and Spain are both facing another sharp rise, with peaks of 41 to 42C forecast in France. Officials and fire crews say those conditions are helping the fires spread faster and burn harder, making the response more difficult.
Outside Madrid, wildfires have burned about 606 square miles since July 1, according to the European Forest Fire Information System. That is more than twice the size of the city itself. In Gironde, the flames also came close to sensitive military and industrial sites, including facilities linked to French ballistic missiles, rocket motors and hazardous chemical processing.
