France orders fresh evacuations as wildfires displace 330,000 across Europe

French authorities ordered 4,000 more people to evacuate from Atlantic coastal tourist sites on July 29, 2026, as southwestern Europe faced one of its largest peacetime displacement crises. Across France and Spain, roughly 330,000 people have been driven from homes and vacation sites by massive wildfires, according to NPR reporting.

The Gironde fire, which has burned an area four times the size of Paris, forced 220,000 evacuations alone. Interior Minister Laurent Núñez stated that this evacuation is "very likely" the largest civilian evacuation operation carried out in France outside war. The Gironde prefect Sophie Brocas said the situation remained dire: "The situation remains complicated. That's clear. We're not out of the woods."

At the same time, partial reversals offered temporary relief. About 60,000 residents from Le Haillan and parts of Mérignac and Eysines outside Bordeaux's ring road were allowed to return on Tuesday, after being evacuated as a precaution. In Landes, about 15,000 evacuees, roughly half of those displaced there, returned home after a separate wildfire stopped advancing. President Emmanuel Macron said Monday evening: "The fire is fixed, which is good news in the Landes." Those allowed home included residents of Sanguinet, Parentis-en-Born, Biscarrosse's aviation village and a large campground. However, authorities warned that the Landes fire was not extinguished and that residual hot spots, wind and drought could cause flare-ups; surveillance and damping-down operations were expected to continue for days or weeks.

Fresh flames erupted on Tuesday near Grand Crohot, a popular Atlantic beach on the Lège-Cap-Ferret peninsula, forcing new precautionary evacuations of campsites, holiday villages, tourist residences and leisure parks around the resort of Lacanau. A fleet of 23 planes and helicopters, up from 18, dropped water and fire retardant as crews fought the flames.

At its most violent, the Gironde blaze created a pyrocumulonimbus cloud, described as gargantuan, electrified and lit from within, generating lightning and violent winds. According to NPR, this was the first such phenomenon recorded in France. France's national weather service placed Gironde under a yellow heat warning beginning at midday Tuesday, forecasting inland temperatures of 33 to 35 Celsius (91 to 95 Fahrenheit).

More than 1,160 square kilometers (448 square miles) have burned across France this year, per the Interior Ministry. The European Union's Copernicus climate service reported that Europe is heating at more than twice the global average and that Western Europe recorded its hottest June on record, with extreme heat and widespread dryness contributing to the spread and intensification of fires in both nations. In Le Porge alone, west of Bordeaux, about 150 homes were destroyed.

Military engineers and forest-fire prevention crews resumed cutting firebreaks early Tuesday; authorities said crews had completed 103 kilometers (64 miles) of firebreaks. At least 110 firefighters have been injured, according to the prefecture. Eric Brocardi, spokesperson for France's national firefighters federation, stated: "We are at a point of fragility. We will continue attacking this fire despite the forecast rise in temperatures."

Spain, bracing for its fourth heat wave of the summer, began lifting evacuation and stay-at-home orders after firefighters made progress overnight. According to NPR, central government representative Francisco Martín said evacuation orders would be lifted in 10 towns, allowing about 20,000 evacuees to return home and ending stay-at-home orders for another 14,000 people. Another 6,000 could return after a smaller fire near Toledo was brought under control, while several thousand more went home in Castellón. Smoke from the fires reached Madrid in recent days. Spain is also braced for several blazes still burning out of control, including the largest in its recorded history.