Spain, France battle wildfires as heatwave grips Europe
Firefighters battle wildfires in Spain and France; Although a massive fire in the central province of Guadalajara has receded, allowing some residents to return to their homes, the risk of more fires remains very high across much of Spain.
In France, where two firefighters died Tuesday when their truck burst into flames in the southwestern region of Gironde, authorities urged people to avoid using barbecues in areas affected by heat waves and stressed that nine out of 10 forest fires are caused by human activity, whether accidental or not.
Europe is the world’s fastest-warming continent, and scientists say human-caused climate change is increasing the intensity of heatwaves, droughts and wildfires, while also creating conditions for sudden, devastating storms.
The continent has been hit by three sweltering heatwaves almost in a row in 2026.
Intense heat was also responsible for thousands of excess deaths during the May-June period.
Spain’s worst-ever wildfire in 2026 has burned an estimated 32,000 hectares in the Guadalajara region.
It began to stabilize on Tuesday, following mandatory evacuation in 34 municipalities and quarantine in 14 other municipalities.
Residents of five villages were allowed to return, although other restrictions remained.
Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, who visited the region on Wednesday, said Spain has already suffered 22 major forest fires in 2026, with more than 100,000 hectares burned across the country.
“To put this in perspective, this is the annual average that Spain has experienced over the last decade,” he said, adding that more needed to be done to prevent fires.
“We must raise public awareness and not trivialize the impacts of the climate emergency.”
Spain’s weather agency AEMET said the wildfire danger was “very high or extreme” across much of mainland Spain and the Balearic Islands and was expected to increase further in the coming days.
He urged people to “exert extreme caution” as the ongoing heatwave combined with dry storms and Saharan dust.
A significant cooling is expected starting from Friday.
However, this period may be short. Temperatures are expected to rise again from Sunday and intense temperatures could return across much of Spain early next week.
In France, milder temperatures and light winds were helping efforts to fight a wildfire in the southeastern Var region that burned 2,500 hectares, damaged dozens of homes and forced 400 people to flee their homes, local officials said.
Helicopters started dropping water on the still active Var fire again.
“The situation was very difficult. About 1,100 firefighters fought all night,” Commander William Vogl, spokesman for Var firefighters, said on RMC radio.
He said the fire was not yet under control but winds should be “more favourable” on Wednesday.
Authorities said another fire broke out in Hautes-Alpes in southeastern France.
