Firefighters in Spain and France were scrambling on Tuesday to keep ferocious wildfires near Madrid and Bordeaux in check before a scorching heat wave hits the area, which could worsen the largest blazes the countries have faced in their modern history.
Lt. Col. Éric Brocardi, a spokesman for France’s National Federation of Firefighters, told French radio on Monday that recent rainfall had given those battling the flames a short window of opportunity “to race against the clock” before the heat wave arrives.
Temperatures in parts of both countries are expected to climb to 104 degrees Fahrenheit, or 40 degrees Celsius, this week — the latest in a succession of extreme heat events that have dried out vegetation, combining with strong winds to increase the risk of fires spreading.
The fires in France and Spain have consumed scores of houses and burned hundreds of thousands of acres of land so far, highlighting the challenge faced by Europe as summers grow increasingly hot and wildfires become more widespread. Flames have come unsettlingly close to the Spanish capital and to Bordeaux, which is France’s sixth largest city and a famed center of its wine industry.
On Tuesday morning, officials in Spain said that the wildfires had been mostly contained overnight, thanks to milder temperatures.
“It has been a positive night,” Fernando Grande-Marlaska, Spain’s interior minister, told the Spanish public broadcaster. “Today we can rest a bit easier, given the weather conditions we will be facing in the coming hours,” he said.
In France, a fire in the Landes region was brought under control. But officials said they feared that the one in the Gironde region, near Bordeaux, which had stopped progressing on Sunday, could quickly pick up again.
Both countries have continued to preventively evacuate residents and tourists from the affected areas. On Tuesday, the city of Lacanau, on France’s Atlantic coast, ordered the evacuation of all of its camping sites, tourist accommodations and vacation villages.
More than 220,000 people have been evacuated in recent days in the Gironde region, which is facing the largest fire. In the Landes region further south, 31,000 people were evacuated, but 15,000 have since been allowed to return.
“We need to realize that we’re facing a totally unprecedented fire,” President Emmanuel Macron of France said on Monday of the Gironde blaze as he visited a local fire department, adding that it was the worst since World War II.
In Spain, more than 100,000 people have been ordered to flee their homes or take shelter in the Madrid region and the surrounding areas, as well as in Castellón, a province near Valencia where another wildfire is raging.
Officials have warned that completely putting the fires out could take much more time and resources.
The fire “will decrease in intensity, but it will certainly not be declared extinguished for several weeks or even months,” Lt. Col. David Annotel, of the national federation of firefighters, told RTL radio station on Monday. Nearly 90 firefighters have been injured in the Gironde fire.
In Spain, about 425,000 acres have burned so far in 2026, Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said on Monday — more than six times the amount at this point last year.
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