Europe

Wildfires Rage Across France and Spain, Over 300K Displaced

Are European wildfires fueled by climate change or is poor forest management the real culprit?

JUL 29·Updated AUG 24

Wildfires Rage Across France and Spain, Over 300K Displaced

Story

Above: A volunteer runs to fill a water bucket to help battling the fire in Lanton, France, on July 29. Image credit: Romain Perrocheau/AFP/Getty Images

The Facts

French authorities ordered nearly 4,000 more people to evacuate tourist sites near Lacanau on the Atlantic coast on Tuesday as a resurgent heatwave threatened firefighters' hold on a vast wildfire west of Bordeaux, bringing the total evacuated from Gironde to 220,000.
Al Jazeera
AP News
Breitbart
The Gironde wildfire has burned roughly 42,000 hectares (around 103,784 acres) — an area four times the size of Paris — with French President Emmanuel Macron describing it as "a situation that is more difficult than at any time since the Second World War."
The National News
PBS NewsHour
Firefighters recorded 14 new flare-ups Tuesday in areas already affected by the Gironde blaze, with France's fourth heatwave of the summer expected to push temperatures to 40 C from Wednesday. Some 2,750 firefighters and 23 aircraft were deployed to battle the fires.
France 24
EDNEWS
GB News
A wildfire in the hilly terrain of Avila, west of Madrid, became Spain's largest on record, burning more than 50,000 hectares. At least 13 people have died in wildfires across Spain in 2026, making it one of the country's deadliest fire seasons in decades.
AP News
The Guardian
France's Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu said "116,085 hectares have already burned and 13,566 fire starts have been recorded since January," surpassing the previous record set in 2022. Spain's government reported that 172,000 hectares burned this year — six times the equivalent figure for 2025.
Hans M. Kristensen on Substack
Time
XINHUA
The EU activated its civil protection mechanism, deploying seven planes and four helicopters from Czechia, Croatia, Germany, Portugal, Slovakia, Sweden and Turkey to France, and six planes from Greece, Italy and Turkey to Spain. Over 300,000 people were displaced across both countries.
CNBC
PBS NewsHour

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The Spin

Climate-concerned narrative

Climate change is making European wildfires worse and the data is undeniable. Europe is warming twice as fast as the global average, and the record heat driving these fires would've been virtually impossible without climate change. Hundreds of thousands displaced in France and Spain is the new normal unless emissions are taken seriously.

Channel 4 News on Substack

The Guardian

Climate-skeptic narrative

The root of the issue is gross mismanagement of forests, a cause that continues to get ignored. Rural depopulation and the absence of livestock grazing are exacerbating these wildfires the most, while those who push back on the climate narrative are branded deniers. These new climate measures in turn ensnare landowners and make forest management more difficult.

Unherd