Fires in Europe: latest developments

Here are the main developments related to the wildfires raging in Spain and France on Monday:

France fire stable

The fire in France’s southwest Gironde region was stable overnight, local authorities said.

“At this stage, the situation remained stable overall overnight, without any major developments,” the local prefecture wrote in a media briefing.

Holiday camps banned

The Gironde local authority said early Monday it was banning holiday camps, including Scouts’ trips with overnight stays and holiday camps for people with disabilities.

115,000 hectares burned

Some 115,000 hectares (284,000 acres) have burned in wildfires in France since the start of the year, “far more than anything we have seen in the past”, Interior Minister Laurent Nunez said Sunday.

France is currently battling 30 to 40 wildfires daily, Nunez told France 2 television. Conditions remained “very unfavourable” on major fronts, including the southwestern regions of Gironde and Landes, and in the Mediterranean Var region.

A total of 2,500 firefighters, including a Swiss firefighting team, 1,500 military personnel and around 1,200 police have been deployed to Gironde, Nunez said earlier.

Macron calls crisis meeting

French President Emmanuel Macron will chair a crisis cabinet meeting Monday morning to discuss the wildfires ravaging several areas of southwest France, his office said.

Fire cloud

The gigantic wildfire ravaging southwest France has created a dangerous “pyrocumulonimbus” — a phenomenon never before seen in the country — the spokesman for the country’s National Firefighters Federation of France (FNSPF) told AFP.

Also called a cumulonimbus flammagenitus, they can occur during volcanic eruptions or, as in this case, when a wildfire roasts the air near the ground, causing it to rise quickly. The rising air cools and becomes a “fire cloud”: a turbulent mass that can generate its own winds that worsen fires.

No quick return

The 220,000 people evacuated away from the massive wildfire in France’s Gironde region will not be able to return home “until the fire has been brought under control”, the local prefect said Sunday.

“I urge tourists not to come, not to travel to the Gironde,” added Sophie Brocas.

There would be no normal workday Monday in the affected towns, ahead of a possible worsening of the situation on Tuesday due to an expected rise in temperatures, she added.

Italy sea evacuations

More than 400 people in Italy were evacuated by sea Sunday as a wildfire swept through parts of the southern Adriatic coast, with several hundred more expected to be rescued, the coastguard said.

Spain’s largest fire

The wildfires ravaging areas around Spain’s capital Madrid have included the largest forest fire in the country’s recent history, Sara Aagesen, Minister for Ecological Transition, told journalists.

The blazes have “affected” 77,000 hectares in the Madrid, Avila and Toledo regions, with the largest area around Avila, she said.

‘Incalculable’ damage

Spain’s King Felipe VI, visiting a shelter for evacuees, said the wildfires ravaging the countryside around Madrid and other areas had caused “incalculable” damage to the nation’s natural heritage.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, visiting the fire zone west of Madrid, warned that “difficult hours lie ahead” even if they were “positive” indications towards containing the blaze. He is due to visit affected areas in Valencia on Monday.

© 2026 AFP