Here are the main developments related to the wildfires raging in Spain and France on Monday:Macron warningFrench President Emmanuel Macron, on a visit to a crisis centre in the winemaking capital of Bordeaux, said: “The coming weeks will be tough and we have to hold out.”But he said a smaller fire in the adjoining Landes — which had nonetheless forced the evacuation of more than 30,000 people — was now “contained”.
However he warned it “remains virulent and we must be extremely cautious over the next few hours and the coming days”. New Spain heatwaveMeteorological agency AEMET officially declared a new heatwave would begin on Wednesday, lasting until the end of the week. It earlier said temperatures would soar and humidity levels drop across Spain, causing the fire risk to “surge to very high or extreme levels across almost the entire country”.”This situation will persist, or may even worsen, in the following days,” it added.
Temperatures are also predicted to rise again in France, which is battling two major fires on its Atlantic coast. Spanish Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska told reporters that Monday and Tuesday “are absolutely decisive days” to control the fires because of the forecast. PM’s appealReacting to the forecast, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said: “I ask for understanding and call on all citizens in all the country to exercise extreme caution and take every possible precaution.””We face difficult hours, complex hours” ahead, he warned. EU sends more aircraftThe European Union said it would deploy additional aircraft to Spain to help combat the fires, the bloc’s crisis management chief told AFP.”We currently have nine aerial assets deployed on site, and tomorrow we will have 11, drawn from our European strategic reserve,” EU commissioner Hadja Lahbib said.
Spain plans returnsSpanish authorities said they planned to start allowing some people evacuated from wildfires near Madrid to return on Monday. Francisco Martin Aguirre, a government delegate for the Madrid region, said authorities planned to reopen a campsite where 4,500 people had been evacuated and also allow elderly residents back home in another area. Holiday camps bannedAuthorities in France’s Gironde region said Monday they were banning holiday camps, including Scouts’ trips with overnight stays and holiday camps for people with disabilities. 115,000 hectares burnedSome 115,000 hectares (284,000 acres) have burned in wildfires in France since the start of the year, “far more than anything we have seen in the past”, Interior Minister Laurent Nunez said Sunday. France was battling 30 to 40 wildfires daily, Nunez told France 2 television.
He said earlier that 2,500 firefighters, including a Swiss firefighting team, 1,500 military personnel and around 1,200 police have been deployed to Gironde to battle the major inferno. Portugal firesSeveral fires broke out in northern and central Portugal, with over 1,000 firefighters and other professionals fighting the flames, supported by around 20 planes and helicopters, civil protection services said.burs-ach/rmb
Mon, 27 Jul 2026 19:54:17 GMT