'We will rebuild' after France fires, says President Emmanuel Macron
(Smoke rises as flames burn during a wildfire near Vilavella and Vall d’Uixo, Castellon, Spain, July 25, 2026. © Eva Manez, Reuters)
(Debris lies amid ashes of a wildfire at Lege-Cap-Ferret in the Gironde department, amongst worsening drought conditions following a heatwave and water shortages across much of France, July 25, 2026. © Florion Goga, Reuters)
(A firefighter stands facing flames as smoke rises during a wildfire at Ares, Grionde, amongst worsening drought conditions following a heatwave and water shortages across much of France, July 25, 2026. © Stephane Mahe, Reuters)
The threat posed by a wildfire raging in the southwestern French department of Gironde "remains very serious," the top regional official, Sophie Brocas, said.
"The threat remains very serious. We are still facing a grave situation," she said, adding however that the blaze has lost "some of its intensity thanks to lower temperatures and increased humidity".
Spain's Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said Saturday firefighters were working to "save lives" in the blazes raging west of Madrid, as authorities said a separate fire in the east killed one person.
The fires in the parched countryside have forced 60,000 people to flee their homes, the interior ministry said, in what officials have called the region's worst fire on record. The central government delegate in Madrid had earlier given a higher estimate of around 70,000.
"Our priority, our thinking, our aim is for your lives, to save your lives and protect inhabited areas," Sanchez told reporters in the village of Cenicientos in the fire zone.
"We are going to have some complex hours ahead because although the temperatures have gone down, we do not know exactly how the wind will develop, how strong it will be."
President Emmanuel Macron said France would rebuild after the devastating fires that have swept parts of the country's south, forcing tens of thousands of evacuations.
"We will rebuild, we will repair and we will be there for as long as is needed," he said in a post on X.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot said the wildfires reinforce France's conviction that the fight against climate warming is a priority.
"The ongoing wildfires are a terrible ordeal. We stand with the thousands of people affected and offer our gratitude and admiration to the firefighters battling tirelessly," he wrote in a post on social media platform X.
"These tragedies only reinforce France’s conviction that combating global warming is a priority. This requires ambitious international agreements calling for global-scale transitions – and full compliance with them by the international community."
A fire near the eastern Spanish city of Valencia killed one person, the local town hall said on Saturday.
Firefighters brought the blaze in the town of Manises under control but "unfortunately the fire has claimed the life of one person," it said on X.
The fire was a separate incident from the major blazes raging west of Madrid, which have forced thousands of people to evacuate but have so far not caused any reported deaths.
(A French Air Force military transport A400M aircraft making its first-ever drop of fire retardant over the wildfire near Lacanau, southwestern France, on July 25, 2026. The plane, equipped with a dispensing kit that can release 20 tonnes of water or fire retardant, was deployed by the French government to help fight wildfires. ©Abdul Saboor, AFP)
The threat posed by a wildfire raging in the southwestern French department of Gironde "remains very serious," the top regional official, Sophie Brocas, said.
"The threat remains very serious. We are still facing a grave situation," she said, adding however that the blaze has lost "some of its intensity thanks to lower temperatures and increased humidity."
A military transport plane deployed by the French government on Saturday to help fight wildfires carried out its first firefighting mission in the southwest of the country journalists saw.
The A400M military aircraft, equipped with a dispensing kit that can release 20 tonnes of water or fire retardant, flew over a forest in Lacanau in southwestern France.
the broadcaster's Luke Shrago reports from a makeshift evacuation centre in Bordeaux. He described "a sense of resignation and some anger", especially among foreign visitors.
The French defence ministry said it was deploying an additional 500 military personnel to help "protect people and property" during wildfires, bringing the total number of troops mobilised to 1,500.
The troops will assist with evacuating residents from areas threatened by the fires and help safeguard homes left unattended during the emergency, the ministry said.
Tour de France organisers announced that they were shortening the following day's final stage due to the wildfires ravaging southwest France.
The news came after the interior ministry had said that it would need to redeploy officers initially mobilised to provide security for the race to areas affected by the fire.
"In a spirit of national solidarity with the areas and communities affected, it was decided to adapt the route for the final stage from Thoiry to Paris," organisers ASO said in a statement.
The Gironde region around Bordeaux is once again battling major wildfires, four years after a devastating blaze swept through the area.
As Morgan Ayre explains, 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.
Wildfires on the coast of southwestern France moved inland towards Bordeaux, forcing the evacuation of thousands in the city's suburbs, while in neighbouring Spain high winds complicated efforts to fight a massive blaze near Madrid.
Hundreds of thousands of people have been evacuated in both countries because of those fires, the latest natural disasters linked to sustained dry spells and successive heatwaves that scientists say have been exacerbated by climate change.
"The fires that are hitting our country have reached a level that has never been seen before," French Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu wrote on X.
(Mohammed, 63, from Navalagamella, eats a meal as people affected by the wildfires take shelter at the Municipal Sports Hall of Villanueva de la Canada, Community of Madrid, Spain, July 25, 2026. ©Ana Beltran, Reuters)
(People affected by the wildfires take shelter at the Municipal Sports Hall of Villanueva de la Canada, Community of Madrid, Spain, July 25, 2026. ©Ana Beltran, Reuters)
(Yaza, 26, sits next to her dog as people affected by the wildfires take shelter at the Municipal Sports Hall of Villanueva de la Canada, Community of Madrid, Spain, July 25, 2026. ©Ana Beltran, Reuters)
Out-of-control wildfires raging in France and Spain have forced the evacuation of more than 250,000 people in total, authorities in both countries said.
The French government said that 197,000 people were evacuated because of wildfires near Bordeaux, in southwest France.
The Spanish interior ministry said a total of 70,000 people were evacuated from villages west of Madrid.
Both countries are facing unprecedented blazes that are spreading unchecked despite the efforts of many hundreds of firefighters backed by water-dropping aircraft.
Another 25,000 people were evacuated from villages near Madrid threatened by wildfires, bringing the total who have fled to 70,000, Spain's government delegate to Madrid said.
The latest evacuations took place in the Valle del Tietar area of Avila province west of the capital, as well as two villages in the Madrid region, the official, Francisco Martin, told journalists.
Spain evacuated another 10,000 people because of wildfires near Madrid, bringing the total to more than 45,000, the country's interior ministry Fernando Grande-Marlaska said Saturday.
The ministry said in a statement that fires in the province of Avila near the capital forced the evacuation of seven more villages.
French Interior Minister Laurent Nunez said that the French fires had ravaged nearly 98,000 hectares (242,000 acres) -- a "historic record" nearly 10 times the size of the city of Paris.
"There are still a number of fires across the country that have not yet been brought under control," he said, singling out major blazes in the southwestern departments of Gironde and Landes.