Overview
- By Sunday more than 220,000 people were ordered from homes around Bordeaux and tens of thousands were evacuated or told to shelter near Madrid as fires advanced toward populated suburbs.
- The Gironde blaze has burned tens of thousands of hectares and reopened new fronts that forced closures of major roads and rail links while protecting Bordeaux became a central priority.
- Spain declared a civil protection emergency after multiple fires west of Madrid merged, and authorities reported a separate intense front near Valencia that killed one person.
- France has mobilised roughly 1,500 troops to help evacuations and security, and EU member states have sent water‑bomber aircraft, crews and emergency mapping under the EU civil protection mechanism.
- Officials said successive heatwaves and prolonged drought left forests tinder‑dry, producing fast, erratic fires that have overwhelmed local crews, strained resources and triggered probes and arrests where human ignition is suspected.