Wildfires fueled by extreme heat and strong winds swept across parts of Europe on Friday, forcing state authorities to order evacuations of certain areas and declare states of emergency.
Wildfires fanned by scorching temperatures and strong winds swept across parts of Western Europe on Friday, with a national state of emergency declared in Spain.
French authorities have ordered the total evacuation of the Cap Ferret peninsula, a tourist spot on the Atlantic coast, sending boats to help people leave the area threatened by a major fire.
The order for a total evacuation of the area, which is characterized by valuable property and is currently full of tourists, has underlined the severity of the fire.
The fire has already engulfed 10,000 hectares of land and continued to spread rapidly.
The total area of land burned so far this year in EU countries is the second largest ever recorded, according to satellite data from the European Forest Fire Information System.
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France has called on the European Union's civil protection mechanism to request assistance, French President Emmanuel Macron announced on Friday, warning that the crisis remains "very intense."
"The situation remains extremely tense with the fires hitting our country, particularly in Gironde. France has requested the activation of the European Union's civil protection mechanism. We will soon be able to rely on reinforcements from two Croatian Canadair aircraft, two Portuguese Air Tractor aircraft, as well as two Black Hawk heavy helicopters from the Czech Republic and Slovakia," Macron declared.
The Spanish government has declared a state of national emergency after a series of wildfires threatened communities near Madrid and in the neighboring province of Avila, forcing more than 10,000 people to evacuate.
The measure, announced by the Interior Ministry, aims to mobilize and centralize resources more quickly to fight the fires, due to the simultaneous outbreak of several fires, adverse weather conditions and the need to mobilize extensive resources from different public administrations, increasing the complexity of firefighting and civil protection efforts. Spanish authorities have also requested four firefighting aircraft from the European Union.
The Spanish Prime Minister has described the current situation as dramatic with fires that have destroyed thousands of hectares of land across Spain and neighboring countries.
"We are living a dramatic situation, not only in different Spanish provinces, but also in regions in neighboring countries. The government has deployed all available resources to bring under control the terrible fires that are currently affecting numerous areas: Ávila, León, Toledo, Madrid and other parts of Spain," said Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez.
More than 100,000 hectares have burned in Spain so far this year, roughly equivalent to the country's average annual area burned over the past decade. Thirteen people have died, making 2026 one of the deadliest fire seasons in decades.
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Thousands of firefighters in Italy continued to battle dozens of active fires in Sicily and the Calabria region. Authorities in the country have launched an investigation into whether these were cases of deliberate arson. A local official said arsonists had started fires by tying rags soaked in flammable liquid to the tails of stray cats to spread the flames.
Much of Europe is facing increasingly severe forest fire seasons, which scientists have linked to climate change.
