PARIS — France and Spain are bracing for another surge in extreme heat that could intensify wildfires already raging across both countries, after hundreds of thousands of people were evacuated and tens of thousands of hectares of land were burned over the past week.
Fires in southwestern France and central Spain remained largely stable overnight into Monday as firefighters worked to prevent the flames from reaching Bordeaux and Madrid. Light rainfall provided some temporary relief, but officials warned that the improvement could be short-lived as temperatures are expected to rise sharply in the coming days.
Jérôme Boulanger, a spokesperson for France’s civil security agency, cautioned that the situation remained dangerous despite progress by emergency crews.
“The fire is far from being under control,” Boulanger said, warning that weather conditions over the next several days would be critical as forecasters expect temperatures to exceed 40C in parts of the country.
The French fires have triggered one of the country’s largest mass evacuations in recent years. About 220,000 people in the Gironde region have been ordered to move to safer locations since the fires began Wednesday, although evacuation orders were paused overnight. Thousands of residents remain in emergency shelters.
President Emmanuel Macron convened a crisis meeting in Paris on Monday to coordinate the government’s response before traveling to Gironde later in the day to meet emergency personnel and other forces deployed to fight the fires.
The fires began near Saumos, a town in Gironde, where Bordeaux is the regional capital and one of France’s major economic centers. Since Wednesday, the flames have consumed about 42,000 hectares of forest, an area roughly four times the size of Paris.
French authorities have described the fires as unprecedented in their intensity and geographical reach. During several hours overnight into Sunday, the blaze developed characteristics resembling the so-called megafires that have become increasingly familiar in parts of the United States and Canada.
Such fires can generate their own lightning, powerful winds and weather systems, making them particularly difficult to predict and suppress. They remain relatively uncommon in Europe, meaning firefighters have less experience confronting their most extreme forms.
Since Saturday, emergency crews have focused on preventing the fires from moving eastward from the Atlantic coast toward Bordeaux, a city of roughly 260,000 people. Shifting winds, dry vegetation and difficult terrain have complicated those efforts.
The region’s extensive pine forests provide large areas of combustible vegetation, while the Atlantic coast is crowded with tourists during the summer holiday season, increasing the logistical challenges for authorities attempting to evacuate residents and protect infrastructure.
The economic consequences are also spreading.
French Finance Minister Roland Lescure said the operations of about 13,000 businesses in evacuated areas of Gironde would be affected. Following an emergency meeting Monday, he promised a broad mobilization of government resources to assist companies and workers disrupted by the fires.
“This is an economic thunderbolt that is hitting a region that did not need it,” Lescure said.
Gironde is not only a major tourism and wine-producing region. It is also an important center for France’s defense and aerospace industries and contains military facilities linked to the country’s nuclear weapons program.
Dassault Aviation, the French fighter jet manufacturer, operates a factory in Mérignac on the outskirts of Bordeaux. ArianeGroup, a major satellite and aerospace company, has two production facilities in districts affected by evacuation orders.
The threat is similarly serious in Spain, where firefighters spent the night working to stabilize fires west of Madrid.
Spanish Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska warned that Monday and Tuesday would be decisive in determining whether crews could contain the fires before weather conditions deteriorate.
“Today and tomorrow are absolutely crucial days,” Grande-Marlaska said.
From Wednesday, he added, forecasts point to higher temperatures, stronger winds and lower humidity — a combination that could make firefighting operations substantially more difficult.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez directly linked the worsening fire conditions to climate change during a visit to an area affected by wildfires in the country’s southeast.
“We need to be more vigilant and better prepared every year for a climate emergency that is, unfortunately, surpassing every level that scientists have been systematically warning us about for many years,” Sánchez said Monday.
The crisis has prompted a coordinated European response as France and Spain seek additional aircraft, helicopters and personnel from neighboring countries.
Following requests from both governments, the European Union has coordinated the deployment of six firefighting planes to Spain and five planes and two helicopters to France from other European countries.
Portugal has also sent 134 personnel and 41 vehicles to assist Spain under the EU’s civil protection mechanism.
The EU is using its Copernicus satellite system to monitor the fires and map their development. The system can provide near-real-time information on wildfire activity, allowing authorities to track the movement and intensity of major fires across the continent.
The European Commission has not deployed the entirety of its reserve fleet, which includes 22 firefighting planes and five helicopters.
An EU official said the decision was not simply a matter of sending as many aircraft as possible because firefighting resources have to be appropriate for local terrain, weather and operational conditions.
“It’s not always a matter of putting 10 additional planes,” the official said. “They need to be adapted for [local] scenarios. It’s not always a solution to send all the available assets.”
The latest fires are occurring after three successive heatwaves dried vegetation across large parts of Europe, leaving forests and grasslands highly vulnerable to ignition and rapid fire spread.
Scientists have repeatedly warned that climate change is intensifying heatwaves and contributing to conditions that increase wildfire risks. Higher temperatures dry soil and vegetation, while prolonged periods of hot, dry weather can create conditions in which fires spread faster and become more difficult to contain.
The risk extends well beyond France and Spain.
European authorities are monitoring wildfire conditions in Portugal, Greece, Germany and other countries as the continent enters the height of its summer fire season. Officials expect the wildfire season to last into November in some areas this year.
The scale of destruction could also exceed last year’s record.
European officials warned that wildfires could burn more than 1 million hectares across the European Union in 2026, surpassing the area affected by fires in 2025.
For France and Spain, the immediate challenge is to contain the existing fires before the next wave of extreme weather arrives. With temperatures expected to climb above 40C, stronger winds and low humidity could rapidly erase the gains firefighters have made.
The coming days will therefore determine whether emergency crews can consolidate their positions or face another escalation in fires that have already displaced hundreds of thousands of people and placed enormous pressure on local governments, businesses and emergency services.
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