Thousands of people have been forced to flee parts of south-west France amid worsening wildfires that prompted the authorities to order people to evacuate from the Cap Ferret peninsula along the Atlantic coast.
Evacuees have been told to leave the area before 10am, using hundreds of mobilised boats or the only road linking the area with the mainland.
More than 10,000 hectares are affected by the two concurrent wildfires, which last night crossed the firebreak established by firefighters.
The French authorities formally requested the activation of the European Union’s Civil Protection Mechanism to tap into the bloc’s resources as they battle the fires, with Emmanuel Macron saying the situation remained “very intense.”
The EU’s crisis commissioner, Hadja Lahbib, confirmed that “following France’s activation of the EU’s civil protection mechanism, the EU is providing assistance and deploying 3 water bomber aircraft.”
Dangerous situation is also unfolding in Spain, with the Spanish government declaring a national emergency over wildfires near Madrid and Avila, forcing more than 10,000 people to evacuate.
I will bring you all the updates here.
It’s Friday, 24 July 2026, it’s Jakub Krupa here, and this is Europe Live.
Good morning.
Earlier today, the European Commission said it was following the situation in France and Spain with “great concern,” deploying its firefighting planes under the EU’s Civil Protection Mechanism.
The EU has a fleet of 22 planes and five helicopters ready to deploy, alongside over 700 firefighters “pre-positioned” across the key risk areas.
Four firefighting planes will be sent to help in Spain, and three to France, it said.
“We obviously hope that all hell will not break loose but we are preparing for a severe situation given that we will be seeing these extreme weather events more frequently, and they will be harshed and more brutal,” EU spokeswoman Anna-Kaisa Itkonen said.
in Madrid
Forest fires in the area near the Spanish capital are nothing new.
Last year, a blaze hit Tres Cantos and Soto de Viñuelas, half an hour’s drive north of the city, killing one man, devouring 1,000 hectares of land and forcing the evacuation of dozens of people.
Here’s a piece I wrote about the fire’s aftermath.
Two of three wildfires raging west of Madrid are “on the verge of merging“ into a single blaze, the regional government’s representative in Madrid said on Friday, warning that the fire was “out of control”, AFP reported.
“Two fires, the one in San Martin and the one in Villa del Prado, are on the verge of merging and becoming a single blaze advancing towards Navas del Rey,” Francisco Martin told reporters, adding that further villages in the area were being evacuated.
in Madrid
More evacuation orders have been issued for the Madrid municipalities of Chapinería, Navas del Rey, and Colmenar del Arroyo.
The main priority for firefighters tackling wildfires raging in villages around Madrid is to prevent the “convergence” of the blazes, Spain’s interior minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska told reporters on Friday.
The authorities were dealing with an “unfavourable situation” due to strong wind gusts of more than 50 kilometres (30 miles) per hour, low humidity and high temperatures, he added in comments reported by AFP and made during a visit to the emergency command centre in the village of Cenicientos.
Several municipalities remained under confinement orders on Friday, AFP noted.
More than 430 elderly people and people with disabilities from five care homes were among the evacuated, the regional government of Madrid said in a statement.
Europe correspondent
Authorities in south-western France have ordered the total evacuation of the Cap Ferret peninsula on the Atlantic coast by land and sea as an “intense and highly unpredictable” wildfire advances on one of the country’s best-known holiday spots.
The fire had burned more than 10,000 hectares (24,700 acres) by Friday morning, the French interior minister, Laurent Nuñez, said, with 40,000 people already or about to be evacuated, including thousands of tourists from campsites and rental homes.
Boats began ferrying holidaymakers and residents off four piers on the peninsula early on Thursday after the Gironde prefecture ordered its progressive evacuation, “village by village”, by sea or by the only road linking the area with the mainland.
Brutal heat, as climate breakdown triggers more frequent and extreme weather events – causing thousands of excess deaths, evaporating soils and fuelling wildfires – has also prompted Spain to declare a national emergency, with blazes burning out of control.
in Madrid
Worth stressing that the declaration of a national emergency in Spain is a big deal.
The move – which allows the central government to assume overall control of powers and responsibilities that are usually the domain of Spain’s self-governing regions – has only happened once before, which was during the nationwide blackout in April 2025.
Spain’s regional governments are sometimes reluctant to cede their powers to the central government when emergencies occur.
The deadly floods that hit Valencia at the end of October 2024, killing more than 230 people, were classified as a level 2 emergency, meaning that the regional government was in charge of the response effort.
Had the disaster been declared a level 3 emergency at the request of the Valencian government, then the central government would have stepped in – as has happened with the current wildfires.
Over in France, it’s not just the south-west that gets affected, but the country’s south-east regions are also being hard hit, AFP noted.
Dozens of fires flared up and are being fanned by the mistral wind around the historic village of Cotignac – officials saying around 25 houses had been destroyed since Tuesday.
in Madrid
In an update issued on Friday morning, Spain’s environment ministry said 114,796.42 hectares of land had been burned by forest fires so far this year, compared with 25,133.26 by the same time last year.
It also said that 29 big forest fires had been recorded so far in 2026. That figure represents a huge increase from the average of nine big forest fires between January and the end of July per year over the past decade.
in Madrid
Spain’s prime minister Pedro Sánchez responded to the wildfires ravaging parts of country and neighbouring France, amid heightened warnings about their further spread.
In a post on X, he said:
“We’re living through a dramatic situation, not just in various Spanish provinces but also in regions of neighbouring countries. Forest fires are devastating thousands of hectares and affecting numerous communities.
“I want to express my deepest solidarity with all those who are watching the fire burn their forests and threaten their homes. The government has deployed all available resources. It will be by your side during the emergency and the recovery. Thank you to the BRIF (Forest Fire Brigades), the UME (Military Emergency Unit), the Security Forces, the Civil Protection System, and all the emergency services that are fighting day and night to stop the advance of the flames and extinguish the fire.”
in Madrid
On Thursday night, authorities in the Madrid region asked the central government to step in and declare the fires around the region a national emergency.
Madrid’s regional president, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, commended the people of the region for their response to the fires and thanked the emergency services for their efforts.
“We remain attentive minute by minute, deeply grateful for the work, solidarity, and patience of everyone,” she said. “As soon as the magnitude of this disaster is known, the Community of Madrid will announce aid and plans to mitigate its consequences.”
In a video posted on social media, the shift commander for Madrid’s emergency medical services urged people to be extra vigilant as the fires continued to burn.
“If people notice smoke or ashes in the air, we recommend that they do not take part in any outdoor activities,” said Ester Armela. “If people have any chronic breathing problems of allergies, they should use facemasks when going outside.” If people developed serious symptoms, she added, people they should ring the 112 emergency line.
Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, chaired an emergency response meeting at the Moncloa palace on Friday morning as the state meteorological office warned that the danger of more fires remained high.
“Today, the fire danger will remain very high or extreme across most of the territory despite the drop in temperatures,” it said. “Conditions will improve slightly over the weekend, but the danger will rise again in the following days.
Spain’s interior ministry has also requested for fire-fighting aircraft through the European Union’s Civil Protection Mechanism (10:53).
Meanwhile, Spain has also requested the support of four firefighting aircraft through the European Union’s Civil Protection Mechanism, the bloc’s system for coordinating disaster assistance among member states, to help tackle multiple wildfires near Madrid, the interior ministry said.
Overnight, France did the same, as reported earlier (9:48).
There are also two other emerging news lines in Europe this morning.
Romania’s military just shot down a drone breaching its airspace, the country’s president Nicușor Dan said. He said the drone was spotted over an uninhabited area of the country, allowing an F-16 fighter jet to shoot it down “without any risks”.
Elsewhere, the Ukrainian capital Kyiv is under a ballistic missile warning with explosions reported across the city, after Ukraine struck warehouses supplying Russian army overnight.
I will keep an eye on both of these stories for you.
Nuñez also warned about a second fire in Biscarrosse, which he said was also “significant” and “somewhat similar” to the main fire in Gironde since it broke out yesterday afternoon.
It has burned over 2,500 hectares, prompting the evacuation of just over 20,000 people, he said.
The minister said that the weather conditions were “highly unfavourable,” making it difficult for more than 700 firefighters deployed there to tackle the blaze, and “the fire continues to spread.”
Speaking at a press conference this morning, France’s interior minister Laurent Nuñez said that the largest wildfire in Gironde – which started in Somos, but now moved to the Cap Ferret peninsula – has already burned more than 10,000 hectares.
“As I speak, a total of 40,000 people have been or are currently being evacuated due to this fire,” he said.
Nuñez warned that “the fire is currently not under control and continues to spread,” with around 1,000 firefighters involved in battling the blaze.
In total, more than 50,000 hectares have been burned in wildfires since the start of the year.
Thousands of people have been forced to flee parts of south-west France amid worsening wildfires that prompted the authorities to order people to evacuate from the Cap Ferret peninsula along the Atlantic coast.
Evacuees have been told to leave the area before 10am, using hundreds of mobilised boats or the only road linking the area with the mainland.
More than 10,000 hectares are affected by the two concurrent wildfires, which last night crossed the firebreak established by firefighters.
The French authorities formally requested the activation of the European Union’s Civil Protection Mechanism to tap into the bloc’s resources as they battle the fires, with Emmanuel Macron saying the situation remained “very intense.”
The EU’s crisis commissioner, Hadja Lahbib, confirmed that “following France’s activation of the EU’s civil protection mechanism, the EU is providing assistance and deploying 3 water bomber aircraft.”
Dangerous situation is also unfolding in Spain, with the Spanish government declaring a national emergency over wildfires near Madrid and Avila, forcing more than 10,000 people to evacuate.
I will bring you all the updates here.
It’s Friday, 24 July 2026, it’s Jakub Krupa here, and this is Europe Live.
Good morning.
