European wildfires force 330,000 evacuations as heat wave threatens firefighting efforts

Roughly 330,000 people have been forced to evacuate across southwestern France and Spain as massive wildfires challenge firefighting crews racing against returning heat. On Tuesday, French authorities ordered nearly 4,000 additional evacuations from tourist sites on the Atlantic coast, including campsites, holiday villages, and leisure parks around the resort of Lacanau, according to NPR reporting.

The threat centers on two major blazes. The Gironde fire west of Bordeaux has burned 420 square kilometers, an area four times the size of Paris, per NPR, and forced 220,000 people to evacuate homes and vacation accommodation. Authorities described it as 'stabilized, not fixed,' meaning it could still spread again as temperatures rose and humidity fell. Eric Brocardi, spokesperson for France's national firefighters federation, said Tuesday: 'We are at a point of fragility. We will continue attacking this fire despite the forecast rise in temperatures.' Ninety-three firefighters have been injured while battling the blaze, and 103 kilometers of firebreaks have been completed, per the reporting.

French authorities placed Gironde under a yellow heat warning from midday Tuesday, with the national weather service forecasting inland temperatures of 33 to 35 degrees Celsius (91 to 95 Fahrenheit) and southeasterly winds that could push the fire inland. More than 116,000 hectares have burned across France so far this year, according to the Interior Ministry, per NPR. A separate fire in Landes was contained, allowing about 15,000 people to return home Monday night after being displaced for more than 30,000 residents and vacationers. French President Emmanuel Macron said Monday evening: 'The fire is fixed, which is good news in the Landes,' meaning its advance had been stopped.

Across the border, Spain faces an even larger crisis. Spanish authorities have evacuated some 79,000 people and ordered another 30,000 to remain in their homes during what officials describe as an unprecedented emergency, prompting the government to declare a national emergency for wildfires for the first time, per NPR. Spain's national weather service said the country was entering its fourth heat wave of the summer Tuesday, with temperatures expected to exceed 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit) in some areas. A fire in Ávila, west of Madrid, has become Spain's largest on record, scorching more than 500 square kilometers, which is five times the size of Barcelona. Two large fires in Spain had at times come close to merging into a single mega-blaze in wooded hills about an hour's drive west of Madrid. Another fire in the eastern province of Castillón also forced mass evacuations.

Spanish Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska said Tuesday that nonstop work through the night left him 'reasonably positive,' but warned that conditions could deteriorate as temperatures rose again. Western Europe recorded its hottest June on record, with extreme heat and widespread dryness helping fires spread and intensify, the European Union's Copernicus climate service said, per NPR.

Transport infrastructure has been disrupted. The A63 highway remains partly closed, while rail traffic south of Bordeaux was suspended except on the route toward Toulouse. Authorities warned that the Landes fire in France was not extinguished, and residual hot spots, wind and drought could cause flare-ups, with surveillance and damping-down operations expected to continue for days or possibly weeks, according to the reporting.