Firefighters in France and Spain are working to contain major wildfires before another spell of extreme heat threatens to intensify blazes and make firefighting operations increasingly difficult.
Spanish Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska said Monday and Tuesday would be “absolutely crucial days” before temperatures begin climbing again from Wednesday. Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez also warned that the country faced a challenging period, saying: “We face difficult hours, complex hours” ahead.
European Union officials have cautioned that wildfires could continue burning into early November, with 2026 threatening to become a record year for the amount of land scorched across parts of the continent.
In Spain, a wildfire burning through the hilly terrain of Ávila, west of Madrid, has grown into the largest recorded in the country, destroying about 50,000 hectares, or 125,000 acres. Two other fires are also burning northwest of the capital, bringing the total area affected near Madrid to around 70,000 hectares.
Spain’s state meteorological agency, Aemet, said the latest heatwave was expected to continue until “at least” Sunday, “making firefighting efforts more difficult due to high temperatures [and] locally gusty southerly winds”.
Across the border in France, emergency crews are facing a similar battle against time. Fire service spokesperson Eric Brocardi said authorities were in “a race against time” to gain control of the flames before another surge in temperatures, with forecasters warning that some parts of the country could reach 40C from Tuesday.
Particular concern surrounds a major blaze in Gironde, southwestern France. Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez described the fire as “extremely intense and unpredictable … generating its own winds and advancing erratically toward the Bordeaux metropolitan area”.
The fire has moved to within about 15km of Bordeaux, prompting authorities to prepare for the possibility of further evacuations. Bordeaux Mayor Thomas Cazenave told the BBC he was bracing for “all eventualities”.
“We are preparing to accommodate a large number of people should further evacuations be ordered,” he said.
French President Emmanuel Macron, visiting Bordeaux, warned that authorities faced a prolonged battle against the fires.
“The coming weeks will be tough and we have to hold out.”
Macron said a smaller wildfire in the neighbouring Landes department, which forced more than 30,000 people to leave their homes, had been “contained” but remained “virulent”.
“We must be extremely cautious over the next few hours and the coming days,” he said.
The Gironde wildfire has already burned about 42,000 hectares, making it one of France’s most extensive episodes of wildfire destruction since the Second World War.
In the commune of Cestas, roughly 10 miles from Bordeaux, firefighters used mechanical excavators to remove trees and vegetation in an effort to establish firebreaks and slow the spread of the flames.
Around 220,000 people have been evacuated because of the Gironde fire. Although officials said the blaze did not advance during the early hours of Monday, Nuñez stressed that it was “not contained” and remained “very complicated to control”.
Following an emergency French government meeting on Monday, Nuñez described the scale of this year’s wildfire season as “completely exceptional”. More than 116,000 hectares of forest and vegetation have burned in France since January, compared with about 70,000 hectares during all of 2025.
Spain has also recorded a sharp increase in wildfire destruction. The government said around 172,000 hectares of forested land have burned so far this year, six times the area recorded during the equivalent period of 2025.
Speaking at a climate conference, Sánchez said the fires should not be viewed as isolated disasters and linked their growing severity to the wider climate crisis.
“It is the most painful manifestation of a climate emergency that is making … wildfires more voracious and heatwaves more frequent, and as a result our land more vulnerable,” he said. “It is no longer an exception. It is the rule.”
Teresa Ribera, the European Commission’s lead official on the green transition, said Europe remained inadequately prepared for the consequences of the climate crisis.
Speaking to El País, she said the commission planned to propose a new adaptation strategy in October that would be significantly more comprehensive than measures introduced so far.
