France’s interior minister said Monday that a monster wildfire has stopped growing after forcing 220,000 people out of their homes within the country’s southwest but cautioned that it isn’t yet beaten.
“It hasn’t progressed through the night,” the minister, Laurent Nuñez, said. “We’ve to stay very concentrated, very determined, to go at any moment.”
He spoke after French President Emmanuel Macron held a crisis meeting Monday specializing in the large firefighting effort within the Gironde region and on wildfires elsewhere.
The Gironde blaze has burned an area 4 times the scale of Paris. The region’s prefecture said the situation overnight had remained “globally stable” — a change from previous days where the large blaze raging since last week edged closer to the wine region city of Bordeaux.
Within the adjoining southwestern Landes region, where lots of of firefighters have been making progress against one other virulent but smaller fire, the prefecture said some rain fell overnight and described the conditions as “favorable” for firefighting but additionally cautioned that they may change.
No latest evacuations were announced. But with France about to enter its peak August tourist season, Gironde authorities took more steps to maintain vacationers away, banning holiday camps for youngsters and for individuals with disabilities.
Fire crews racing against feared next heat wave
With 1000’s of firefighters on the bottom and rotations of water- and retardant-dropping aircraft within the air, the large firefighting effort was engaged in a race against time, battling to make progress before a forecast surge in temperatures from Tuesday that would make fighting flames tougher.
Crews using earth movers tore up strips of forest and scrubland to create barren spaces, intended to stop fires from spreading. Farmers were keeping fire crews supplied with water, transporting it to them in tanks. Around a dozen countries have provided planes, helicopters, firefighters and other assistance to each France and Spain, which can be fighting unprecedented blazes. All told, fires in each countries have forced greater than 330,000 people to flee.
Macron didn’t immediately comment after the federal government crisis meeting he presided over. In a weekend post on X, he pledged long-term support for fire-hit communities, saying: “We are going to rebuild, we are going to repair and we will likely be present for so long as vital.”
Spain battling its biggest-ever fires
In Spain, wildfires have burned uncontrolled around Madrid and within the Valencia region. Authorities evacuated 76,000 people and confined 30,000 others to their homes.
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In each Spain and France, the exceptional scale of the fires — fueled by heat waves that hit especially hard and early this yr, making forests and scrubland tinder-dry — are driving calls for stronger motion against climate change.
“What we’re experiencing just isn’t a series of isolated incidents. It’s the consequence of a climate emergency that’s making wildfires much more violent, heat waves more frequent,” Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said.
A fireplace raging in hilly, rural terrain in Ávila, west of Madrid, has turn into Spain’s largest on record, scorching 50,000 hectares (193 square miles), the federal government said. That’s five times the scale of Barcelona.
Fires have burned 153,000 hectares (590 square miles) this yr in Spain — six times the world scorched by blazes in the primary half of 2025, said Sara Aagesen, the ecology minister.
The minister said that one other heat wave forecast from Tuesday — which can be Spain’s fourth up to now this yr — could ratchet up the hearth danger.
Evacuees are fretting about what they’ll find after they’re allowed to return to fire-hit regions.
“It looked just like the apocalypse. You couldn’t see anything. All the things was covered in ash,” said Rocío Domínguez, who evacuated along with her dog, Simba, from Chapinería, west of Madrid.
“We don’t know once we get to the town, if we’ll have half the home burned down or we’ll have it intact or we won’t have a house,” she said. “All the garments, all of the memories, every little thing.”
Water-dropping planes combat fire in Italy
A wildfire driven by strong winds broke out on Sunday afternoon near Peschici, in Italy’s southern Puglia region, burning pine forest and scrub and forcing the evacuation of about 300 tourists from beaches and campgrounds, authorities said.
The Coast Guard evacuated tourists by sea to nearby Vieste, where authorities opened temporary shelters.
Three Canadair water-bombing planes and fire crews on the bottom continued Monday to battle the blaze, which revived memories of devastating wildfires that hit the identical coastal area in 2007.
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