{"id":2380,"date":"2026-07-24T21:23:49","date_gmt":"2026-07-24T21:23:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/arabnewsmonitor.com\/2026\/07\/24\/wildfires-force-mass-evacuations-in-france-and-spain-videos\/"},"modified":"2026-07-24T21:23:49","modified_gmt":"2026-07-24T21:23:49","slug":"wildfires-force-mass-evacuations-in-france-and-spain-videos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.arabnewsmonitor.com\/?p=2380","title":{"rendered":"Wildfires force mass evacuations in France and Spain (VIDEOS)"},"content":{"rendered":"

A total of 80,000 people have fled to safety in both countries, as smoke and fire close in on resort towns<\/strong><\/p>\n

Tens of thousands of people have been evacuated from resorts on France\u2019s southwestern coast, while the Spanish capital of Madrid is battling its worst wildfire in history, as southern Europe burns in one of its hottest summers on record.<\/p>\n

Authorities in France ordered the total evacuation of Cap Ferret on Friday, commanding around 40,000 people to leave the popular resort area. The peninsula had been blanketed in a thick orange haze since Wednesday, when a fire that broke out inland near Saumos began spreading westward to the Atlantic coast.<\/p>\n

While thousands of residents and tourists fled Cap Ferret and surrounding areas on Thursday, boats ferried hundreds of remaining holidaymakers off the peninsula on Friday morning, as flames encroached on the only road leading to the mainland.<\/p>\n

Some 800 firefighters, backed by multiple water-bombing planes deployed by the European Commission were battling the blaze as of Friday afternoon. More than 12,500 hectares of forest have been burned.<\/p>\n

\n

The sky is now completely engulfed by massive, billowing clouds of dark brown and orange smoke as the wildfire in the L\u00e8ge-Cap-Ferret area sends a thick plume of smoke across nearby Lacanau, Gironde Department, France.<\/p>\n

The wildfire has already scorched around 10,000 hectares. pic.twitter.com\/8aENqmWYY4<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Weather Monitor (@WeatherMonitors) July 24, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

French Interior Minister Laurent Nunez said that 32 wildfires of varying size were burning across France on Friday, while 45 km south of Cap Ferret, one of these fires approached the beach town of Biscarrosse, where around 23,000 people have been evacuated.<\/p>\n

\n

\ud83d\udd25 ALERTE – Un monstre. Le m\u00e9gafeu hors de contr\u00f4le en #Gironde<\/a> prend des proportions ph\u00e9nom\u00e9nales et a maintenant parcouru pr\u00e8s de 5000 hectares depuis hier ! L’incendie a atteint L\u00e8ge-Cap-Ferret o\u00f9 des maisons sont en flammes, des explosions sont entendues, la mairie et des\u2026 pic.twitter.com\/DRMpwNlZsM<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Infos Fran\u00e7aises (@InfosFrancaises) July 23, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

While temperatures in southwestern France have dropped from an all-time high of 42.9 degrees Celsius in Biarritz last month to 28C in Biscarosse on Friday, the heatwave of the past six weeks has left the region\u2019s forests unusually dry and vulnerable to fire. According to Nunez, 50,000 hectares across France have been burned so far this year \u2013 nearly four times as much as by this time last year.<\/p>\n

In central Spain, where temperatures reached 44C last month, 19,000 people were ordered to evacuate areas near Madrid and the neighboring region of Avila. Two fires near Madrid and a third in Avila have since merged, prompting Spain to declare a national emergency.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the worst fire in the history of the Madrid region,\u201d<\/em> regional president Isabel Diaz Ayuso said on Friday. Ayuso blamed the catastrophe on \u201ca perfect storm, with extremely high temperatures, a relentless wind and the misfortune of having several fire fronts join together.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\n

21:25 Est\u00e1 metido en el Tiemblo, \u00c1vila. #IFBurgohondo<\/a>. pic.twitter.com\/oh5iIKAT9M<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Infues Avila (@InfuesAvila) July 23, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has blamed the fires on climate change. \u201cI\u2019ve said it many times before, but the climate emergency kills. We\u2019re seeing that across Europe and we\u2019re seeing that in Spain,\u201d<\/em> he said earlier this month. On Wednesday, Sanchez called on his political rivals to back a \u201cstate pact\u201d<\/em> to tackle climate change.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n Read more<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\n \"A
Europe records 10,000 excess deaths amid extreme heatwave<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Spain\u2019s right-wing Vox party pushed back against Sanchez. \u201cIt\u2019s not climate change, it\u2019s the lack of clearing of the woodlands and the means to combat the fires,\u201d<\/em> the party claimed in a social media post.<\/p>\n

Western Europe recorded its hottest June on record last month, according to the EU\u2019s \u2018Copernicus\u2019 Earth observation program. France\u2019s late June heatwave was the most intense in the country\u2019s history, according to Meteo-France, while June was the second-hottest in Spanish history.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A total of 80,000 people have fled to safety in both countries, as smoke and…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":2381,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2380","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.arabnewsmonitor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2380","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.arabnewsmonitor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.arabnewsmonitor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.arabnewsmonitor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2380"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.arabnewsmonitor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2380\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.arabnewsmonitor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2381"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.arabnewsmonitor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2380"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.arabnewsmonitor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2380"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.arabnewsmonitor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2380"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}