Key events
-
Large areas of ‘very’ and ‘extremely’ poor air quality reported after wildfires in France, Spain
-
Fire near Madrid ‘technically stabilised,’ minister says, but calls for caution
-
Spain faces ‘complex’ situation with ‘three very tough days’ ahead, minister says
-
Firefighters continue to tackle blazes in France, Spain – in pictures
-
‘The fear is that with another heatwave, fires could start spreading again’
-
EU ‘needs to focus on prevention’ as wildfires are expected to become bigger, more damaging, experts say
-
EU’s crisis management team worries about difficult weeks ahead as continent battles wildfires
-
Next 12 hours will be decisive to consolidate progress made in fight against wildfires, Spain’s Sánchez says
-
Temperatures in high 30s, low 40s expected across France, Spain
-
Firefighters continue to battle blazes in France, Spain – in pictures
-
Morning opening: France and Spain brace for heatwave as they make progress battling wildfires
Large areas of ‘very’ and ‘extremely’ poor air quality reported after wildfires in France, Spain
Damian Carrington
Environment editor
One of the serious long term impacts of wildfires is the heavy damage to health caused by the plumes of smoke they produce.
Large areas of “very” to “extremely” poor air quality were visible on Wednesday in Spain on the monitoring site of the European Environment Agency, along with a smaller area near Bordeaux.
About 1.5 million people a year die from the smoke from landscape fires, a 2024 study in The Lancet estimated.
Other countries are also experiencing problems related to extreme temperatures.
A wildfire in southwest Turkey has forced authorities to temporarily shut down a highway from the popular tourist hub of Fethiye to the city of Antalya, AP reported.
The blaze began in an agricultural area in Mugla province on Wednesday before spreading into a nearby forest area, driven by strong winds.
Five airplanes, 11 helicopters, 40 fire trucks and hundreds of personnel were dispatched to extinguish the fire, the Mugla governor’s office said. The statement called on motorists to use alternative routes and not to block emergency lanes.
Several fires were also reported in Greece, including on the Aegean island of Paros.
Over in Hungary, the country’s Paks nuclear power plant will shut down one of its four reactors because of record-low water levels on the Danube river, which supplies cooling water to the facility, operator MVM said.
Reuters said the plant, which operates four Russian-built reactors with a combined capacity of 2 gigawatts and produces nearly half of Hungary’s electricity, had already reduced output at another unit by 254 megawatts on Monday.
Meanwhile, just over half of England has been declared in drought after “record-low rain and exceptionally high temperatures”, the UK government said.
It follows what is set to be the driest July on record, with just seven percent of expected rainfall nationwide and some parts of southern England seeing just one percent, according to the government’s Environment Agency, AFP noted.
Fire near Madrid ‘technically stabilised,’ minister says, but calls for caution
Speaking at a press conference this afternoon, Grande-Marlaska also said the Sierra Oeste fire near Madrid has now been “technically stabilised,” although he cautioned that there is still lots of work to be done on fighting the blaze and preventing further flare-ups.
All evacuation and stay-at-home orders in the province of Ávila have been lifted, he said.
Spain faces ‘complex’ situation with ‘three very tough days’ ahead, minister says
Spanish interior minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska has warned the country faced a “complex” situation on wildfires with “three very tough days” ahead as temperatures rise once again and stronger winds risk reigniting some of the fires.
Speaking to TVE earlier today, he said the progress in current firefighting operations was “reasonably positive,” despite increasingly challenging weather conditions, with focus on air surveillance of existing fires to prevent further spread and reignitions.
Firefighters continue to tackle blazes in France, Spain – in pictures
‘The fear is that with another heatwave, fires could start spreading again’
Jane Clinton
Jeremie Bossert, 38, a mountain leader in L’Argentière-la-Bessée, south-eastern France, said the forest and mountain in front of his village have been on fire since Monday 15 July, and while it appears to be “under control”, he fears what the next heatwave will bring.
“We watched the fire consuming our beloved mountain and forest, approaching our houses and the smoke and ashes polluting our air,” he said. “More than a hundred firefighters worked hard to slow it.”
Bossert said it is thought the fire started by lightning.
“It’s not spreading now, and it’s not as huge as it was a few days ago,” he said.
“There was more wind on Tuesday (28 July), and the fire has restarted in a few places. People had to leave their houses because of the risk of rock falls from the mountain, as the trees keeping the rocks in place have been burned down, but they are now able to return.”
He said that despite having a wet winter with heavy snowfall, this was not enough given the heatwaves.
“Since May, we have had a drought we have never seen before,” he said. “Even though it was a wet winter with lots of snow on the mountains – a record in 15 years – this drought enabled the fire to spread quickly on a mountainside that is usually relatively humid.”
“This year many trees all over the local forest have started to pine away, also related to the repetition of heatwaves since very early in the season and with little breaks. The state of the forest – which I’ve never seen in the six years I’ve been living here – made it easier for the fire to spread.”
He adds:
“Right now, we could say it [the fire] is under control. But the fear is that with the heatwave that’s coming in the next few days and the wind picking up again, it could start spreading again.”
EU ‘needs to focus on prevention’ as wildfires are expected to become bigger, more damaging, experts say
Jennifer Rankin
in Brussels
Moises Galan Santano, a wildfires expert at the EU’s Emergency Response Coordination Centre, stressed that more needed to be done to prevent wildfires, which he said would be a task for many years.
“The [emergency] response is not only the answer. It’s the last answer. But it’s not all the answer. We need to focus on prevention.”
Officials said prevention encompassed many policies, such as early-warning systems, more animal grazing (to reduce vegetation) and changes to forest management.
Earlier this year a policy paper from the European Commission set out how European countries could better prevent and recover from wildfires that are expected to become bigger and more damaging across the continent.
It promoted measures, such as more extensive grazing, the restoration of wetlands, rivers and floodplains, better data on forest fires and raising public awareness of risky behaviour and safe evacuation.
EU’s crisis management team worries about difficult weeks ahead as continent battles wildfires
Jennifer Rankin
in Brussels
The European Union’s crisis-management team is expecting difficult weeks ahead, fearing a further outbreak of wildfires in Italy and Greece as the summer goes on.
Maria Zuber, a senior official at the EU’s Emergency Response Coordination Centre in Brussels, said the next few days will be “very difficult” for France, where firefighters are battling to contain the massive fire in the Gironde region near Bordeaux amid a spike in temperatures on Wednesday.
The ERCC is the EU’s crisis-management centre, which monitors disasters around the world and coordinates the dispatch of firefighting planes, equipment and teams to countries that have asked for help.
Speaking to reporters, Zuber said Greece had so far been spared, but “now we see it will go to Greece” and forecast an intensification of fires in Italy from early August. Her colleague, ERCC wildfires expert Moises Galan Santano, also raised concerns about Portugal.
One “new” and “worrying” factor, the ERCC sees uniting the massive fires in France and Spain is their proximity to major cities. Around 220,000 people have been evacuated in the Bordeaux region alone. Over the weekend residents in eight towns near Toledo were forced to leave their homes.
That means firefighters cannot put all their energies into extinguishing the flames, because they have to protect people and property.
Zuber said:
“A firefighter will focus on protecting people. They will focus on protecting houses, protecting a business, a company, because this is something that matters for all our society. And indeed, sometimes by focusing on that, they cannot extinguish fire, [as] they would do it if it would be just forest.
So this is new, this is worrying. And of course also, this means that we need to adapt our methods of fighting the fires.”
Authorities in the Gironde region said the blaze had not spread overnight, but rising heat and afternoon winds could revive smoldering hotspots, carry embers across firebreaks and open new fronts beyond crews’ reach, AP reported.
At the command center in Lège, firefighters bent over maps spread across a car hood, tracking three danger zones: northern Cap-Ferret; the wooded corridor around Marcheprime, Cestas and Saint-Jean-d’Illac; and a military site near Martignas, where a major outbreak forced a large deployment.
PA said that nore than 2,200 firefighters and over 20 aircraft remained mobilized, backed by crews from across France and European partners.
“We strike quickly and strike hard at any new smoke emissions,” Gironde fire commander Matthieu Jomain said.
The advance of major fires in the Landes and Var regions have been halted. That left Gironde as France’s biggest remaining wildfire battle, interior minister Laurent Nuñez said.
We are getting some heartbreaking pictures showing people returning to their homes near Madrid and finding their homes completely destroyed by the blaze.
While the situation near Madrid is gradually improving, the Spanish media are reporting that a separate fire near The Vall d’Uixó in the Castellón province is still spreading uncontrollably.
RTVE reported that it remains out of control after burning nearly 10,000 hectares across 81 kilometers, forcing authorities to evacuate some 10,000 people.
Next 12 hours will be decisive to consolidate progress made in fight against wildfires, Spain’s Sánchez says
Spanish prime minister Pedro Sánchez has been speaking in the last ten minutes on his visit to a command post in Navalcarnero.
He said the current situation remains “favourable,” but the next 12 hours will be “decisive” in consolidating and securing the progress made by the firefighters as temperatures rise and create new risks.
Sánchez also asked those displaced by fires for trust and patience, as he said these decisions are not political, but taken on scientific advice as to when these returns are safe.
As is customary in the last few days, he also warned people against believing hoaxes and conspiracy theories spread on social media.
In Spain, thousands of people have been allowed back to their homes last night near Madrid, even as emergency services still continue to fight the blazes.
24,000 evacuees returned to the area, with another 20,000 released from stay at home orders.
More progress have been made overnight too, but local authorities urged caution as the new heatwave is set to hit the area.
“Efforts will focus on securing the perimeter, monitoring for new hotspots and cooling the areas to keep control of the fire,” a statement said.
Temperatures in high 30s, low 40s expected across France, Spain
Météo-France’s weather forecast shows temperatures up to 39C near Bordeaux – just where the largest wildfire continues to blaze – 38C in Lyon, 37C in Paris and Toulouse.
Over in Spain, it will be even hotter, with Aemet expecting 42C in Pamplona, 41C in Cordova and Saragossa, 40C in Ciudad-Real and Toledo, and 37C in Madrid.
The French prime minister, Sébastien Lecornu, has delayed going on holiday and stays in Paris to manage the wildfire crisis, BFMTV reported.
Despite clear progress made in tackling the blazes, there are continuing concerns over the potential impact of the latest heatwave, starting today.
Firefighters continue to battle blazes in France, Spain – in pictures
Morning opening: France and Spain brace for heatwave as they make progress battling wildfires
Jakub Krupa
France and Spain are braced for the fourth heatwave of the summer to hit just as they were making progress battling destructive wildfires, with temperatures once again expected to cross into high 30s and low 40s celsius later today.
Sophie Brocas, the prefect of Gironde and the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, said overnight that the fire remained contained this morning, with several flare-ups quickly brought under control.
“We will win this war,” the communications director for the French Firefighters Federation, Éric Brocardi, told broadcaster BFMTV.
But the return of high temperatures puts authorities on high alert for new potential fires. Sixty-five French departments were put on a high fire risk warning.
Over in Spain, the government’s regional representatives in Madrid are warning of “extreme” fire danger in parts of the region. But, encouragingly, the main forest fire near the capital remained stable overnight, with no significant flare-ups.
I will bring you all the updates here.
It’s Wednesday, 29 July 2026, it’s Jakub Krupa here, and this is Europe Live.
Good morning.