Thousands who fled huge wildfires in Spain returned home on Wednesday while in France firefighters braced for worsening conditions in their own battle with raging flames. The neighbouring countries have been gripped by some of the worst forest fires in living memory over the past week, burning vast areas and forcing tens of thousands from their homes. Spain lifted remaining evacuation orders for Avila province on Wednesday a day after doing so for several areas in the nearby Madrid region.
While some evacuees returned to untouched homes, others found only devastation.”I’m happy — I couldn’t wait to come home and have my coffee and breakfast,” said Maria Jesus Perez Blanca, in her seventies. She was one of about a dozen returnees at the cafes of Aldea del Fresno, west of Madrid on Wednesday morning. But 12 kilometres (eight miles) away in Pelayos de la Presa, David Rodriguez was knocking down the scorched remains of his home.”It’s a disaster.
Just look at it,” he said. “All my memories, everything I had was here. My dad built it 40 years ago and everything has been lost.”Officials said on Wednesday that better overnight conditions had helped crews stabilise the fire area, and Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said the coming hours would be “decisive” in the battle to extinguish all the remaining flames. In France, the Gironde region reported a second calm night and said the massive fire west of France’s wine-making capital of Bordeaux was stable.- ‘Extreme temperatures’ -Nevertheless, conditions were set to worsen as the fourth heatwave of an already intense summer arrived. Water-bombing planes and firefighters supported by volunteers battled a blaze near the seaside town of Lanton west of Bordeaux.
Among the helpers was Jean-Claude Bonnet, 67, who said he had never seen anything like it. “The worst part is seeing the animals that have been burnt to death by the side of the road,” he added. Shortly after the water-bombing planes left, emergency teams were called back into action as a whirlwind of stinging hot ash swept off the burning pine trees and the fire roared back into life.
Temperatures are expected to hit 41C in areas of Gironde and the Landes region further south, and firefighters fear that strengthening winds could fan embers and reignite the main blaze. Despite those anxieties, authorities said 57,000 residents of three towns near Bordeaux were to be allowed home five days after being evacuated. The regional fire service said it was close to completing 127 kilometres (nearly 80 miles) of firebreaks, backed by a groundswell of public volunteering.”We’re seeing this outpouring of solidarity — you can see it at the water points, you can see it at our command posts, where we have more to eat and drink than we could possibly need,” said firefighting Captain Wilfried Schneider.- Europe-wide disaster -Europe has been gripped by successive heatwaves and a major drought this year, which scientists have attributed to human-caused climate change. Extreme heat has parched vegetation that grew vigorously during wet weather earlier in the year, creating tinderbox conditions.
In Spain, 207,000 hectares (511,000 acres) of land has burned nationwide, among the largest areas in any January to July period on record according to the European Forest Fire Information System. Spanish authorities have reported marginally different figures. In France, some 92,000 hectares have burned over the same period — the largest area ever documented in records that date back two decades.
While the current focus is on Western Europe, the EU warned this week that fire-prone conditions would spread towards the centre of the continent in the coming days. Emergency crews were already tackling a blaze on the Greek island of Paros, and in Crete three firefighters were killed in the fires there. Fires in Turkey have already forced the evacuation of hundreds of people around tourist beaches in the south, with hundreds of firefighters tackling the flames.
Wed, 29 Jul 2026 16:44:23 GMT