Wildfires force 50,000 to flee as France and Spain seek EU air support

Tens of thousands of tourists and residents have fled devastating wildfires across southern Europe, with France and Spain invoking the EU’s Civil Protection Mechanism to secure emergency aircraft as blazes tear through prime vacation and wine regions.

In southwestern France, authorities evacuated 40,000 people from the Gironde area and the Cap-Ferret peninsula, where boats ferried more than 400 people to safety. The fire near Bordeaux, one of France's prized wine areas, has consumed over 10,000 hectares—roughly one and a half times the size of Manhattan. French Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez described it as "the biggest fire of the season," noting that 80 houses have been burnt, 50 of them destroyed.

The mass displacements strike directly at the heart of Europe’s summer tourism economy. Campsites and holiday homes in Nouvelle-Aquitaine were emptied, reviving memories of the massive 2022 fires that struck the same department. Across France, 32 active fires have burned more than 50,000 hectares since January, a figure Nuñez noted is "almost three times as much" as last year.

Spain is facing a parallel crisis, with the government declaring a "national emergency" in the Madrid region and Ávila province to centralise resources and deploy the Military Emergency Unit. Around 10,000 people have been evacuated near the capital as strong winds complicate containment efforts. "We are living through a dramatic situation, not only in various Spanish provinces but also in regions of neighbouring countries," Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez wrote on X.

The sheer scale of the disasters is straining national emergency services, forcing both countries to look abroad for help. France has secured two Croatian Canadair aircraft, two Portuguese Air Tractor planes, and two heavy Black Hawk helicopters from the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Spain requested four planes through the same EU mechanism, with Greece agreeing to send two Canadairs.

This cross-border mobilisation underscores the severity of a wildfire season that satellite data from the European Forest Fire Information System shows is the second largest on record for EU land area burned. Spain alone has lost over 100,000 hectares this year, including a 32,000-hectare fire in Guadalajara. Thirteen people were killed in a southern Spanish blaze earlier this month. The escalating destruction poses a growing threat to regional agriculture, property, and the continent's vital summer tourist trade.