Spanish PM says 'difficult hours' ahead in battle to contain wildfires

Sam Jones

Speaking during a visit to the command post in Ávila on Sunday morning, Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, said that while “difficult hours” lay ahead, there had been some good news on containing the fire.

“We’re facing some difficult hours, although it’s true that the latest update has shown that last night was very positive in terms of the fire’s evolution and efforts to control it,” he said. “We’ll see what happens today, but I’d once again like to urge people to take huge care and to stay up to date.”

Sánchez pointed out that Spain and neighbouring Portugal were experiencing the varied consequences of the climate emergency, from fires and heavy snowfalls to storms. “The entire Iberian peninsula is suffering the effects of the climate emergency in a very specific way,” he added.

Pedro Sánchez arrives at the firefighters central control in Navaluenga, Avila, in central Spain. Photograph: Raul Sanchidrian/EPA

The prime minister also spoke of the need for people to remain properly informed about the fires and their causes, and criticised those who are using social media to pump out hoaxes and fake news. Over recent days, false stories have circulated on social media, claiming the fires have been intentionally started in order to clear the ground for new solar panel installations or to explore new areas for mining.

“Sadly, we’re seeing a lot of fake news during this emergency,” said Sánchez. “And all that does is create more worries and more anxiety for people.”

Key events

Spain’s Military Emergencies Unit (UME) is fighting three fires across the country, with 1,200 soldiers, backed by 400 vehicles, tackling blazes in Madrid, Ávila and Valencia.

The unit was also deployed in the wake of the disastrous floods in Valencia, in which more than 230 people lost their lives.

Spain’s government declared a national emergency on Thursday evening after wildfires ⁠threatened areas near the capital and in the neighbouring province of Ávila.

A national emergency, which allows central government to assume overall control of powers and responsibilities that are usually the domain of Spain’s self-governing regions, has only been declared once before, during the countrywide blackout of April 2025.

Firefighters battle a wildfire in San Martin de Valdeiglesias, west of Madrid, on 26 July 2026. Photograph: Manu Fernández/AP

Major areas of the Madrid fire have been contained, senior military officer says

A glimmer of good news at last: major areas of the Madrid fire have now been “contained and cooled down”, according to a senior officer in Spain’s Military Emergencies Unit (UME).

Speaking to the state broadcaster, RTVE, this morning, Lt Col Alfonso Arribas said important strides had been made in containing the blaze.

“Significant progress has been made in the work carried out around the entire perimeter,” he said.

Right now, we can say that the entire front is certainly contained. There are only a few active fire fronts that are being worked on, and today we hope that conditions will allow us to work in those areas that are still out of control. But it’s not the entire perimeter at all.

Arribas described the perimeter as wide and varied.

“There are areas that are contained and cooled down, others that are active, and others that are uneven,” he said. Arribas also said that no further evacuations were planned before midday.

According to the latest update from Spain’s environment ministry, 152,678 hectares of forest land have burned since the beginning of the year, compared with 24,133 in the same period of 2025. It also said 32 major forest fires have been recorded so far in 2026, compared with seven recorded in the same period of 2025.

Firefighters battle a wildfire in San Martin de Valdeiglesias, west of Madrid on 26 July 2026. Photograph: Manu Fernández/AP

The wildfire situation in France remains 'very unfavourable', interior minister says

France’s interior minister, Laurent Nuñez, has said the wildfire situation in certain areas of the country was “very unfavourable” after another “tough night” battling the blazes.

In a post on X, Nuñez wrote that the fire in the Gironde region in the south-west of France became “extremely virulent and unpredictable” at the start of the night, “generating its own wind” and “spreading erratically toward the Bordeaux metropolitan area”.

He said although the fire “calmed down somewhat” it wreaked extensive damage, with an area of 42,000 hectares burned and an additional five municipalities having to be evacuated overnight.

A total of 2,500 firefighters, including a Swiss firefighting team, 1,500 military personnel and about 1,200 police have been deployed to battle the blazes in Gironde, he said. About 55,000 people from the Gironde region have been evacuated for their safety.

Firefighters work in the Marcheprime area west of Bordeaux. Photograph: Alain Jocard/AFP/Getty Images

A woman sits in the Bordeaux-Lac Exhibition Centre, which has been turned into a shelter for people displaced by the wildfire. Photograph: Florion Goga/Reuters

In the south-west Landes region, where 3,600 hectares have already been scorched, Nuñez said “a flare-up at the front was tackled yesterday using aerial resources”, noting that “the edges remain highly active”. He said nearly 550 firefighters are mobilised and 36,000 people have been evacuated.

Similarly, in the Var region in south-east France, he said nearly 3,000 people have been evacuated as a “preventive measure” while 1,100 firefighters remain mobilised.

“Meanwhile, other ongoing fires are currently being fought across the national territory, such as in Corsica and the Hautes-Alpes, for example, Nuñez added.

As my colleagues note in this story, scientists say climate breakdown is triggering more frequent and more extreme weather events, evaporating soils and waterways, fuelling wildfires and leading to thousands of excess deaths. Europe is heating at about twice the global average rate.

Spain’s environment ministry has said that 32 major forest fires have been recorded so far this year, compared with seven over the same period in 2025.

French interior minister Laurent Nuñez gave an interview with La Tribune, which was published on Sunday.

When asked why it is proving so difficult to bring the fires under control, such as the one raging in the Gironde region in France’s south-west, he said the drought, heatwaves, high winds and “abundant vegetation” experienced this year mean that fires are spreading “very quickly” when they start. “Hence the need to intervene as quickly as possible,” he said.

According to authorities, fires have kept at least 37 sections of road closed to traffic in Madrid, Ávila, Toledo, Castellón, Guadalajara, Huelva and Teruel this morning.

Bordeaux council considering total evacuation of the city if necessary

As we mentioned in the opening post, about 55,000 people were ordered to leave villages around the French city of Bordeaux overnight as the fire continues to spread.

A Bordeaux city council spokesperson has told Sky News that is “currently studying scenarios for all possible ways the fire could evolve”, including a total evacuation of the city if necessary.

Bordeaux’s mayor Thomas Cazenave described the fire as being “at the gates of the metropolitan area”.

In Spain, wildfires are continuing to burn throughout the Madrid area and the province of Ávila, near the capital, according to authorities.

The wildfires have burnt through about 24,000 hectares in the Madrid region and 21,000 hectares in Ávila, according to the Spanish newspaper El Mundo, sparking mass evacuations.

Spain has evacuated tens of thousands of people from villages west of Madrid where extremely dry conditions have been worsened by heatwaves and strong winds.

Over 30,000 people have been evacuated from Ávila and over 15,000 in the eastern Castellón province of Spain.

Evacuation efforts continue in the towns affected by the wildfires as firefighters battle the blaze in La Adrada, in the Ávila province. Photograph: Diego Radames/Anadolu via Getty Images

Firefighters battle a wildfire next to the La Atalaya neighbourhood in El Tiemblo, Madrid, Spain. Photograph: Pablo Blázquez Domínguez/Getty Images

Spain has declared a national emergency, the first time the country has ever done so over a wildfire.

France’s evacuations constituted “probably” the biggest peacetime evacuation the country has ever seen, its interior minister said.

Hundreds of firefighters have worked to contain the blazes, which have been fuelled by persistent heatwaves and the climate crisis, but were still unable to stop their advance.

The French government has called in the military to help, deploying 1,500 soldiers, and has rushed 1.5m face masks to help protect people from smoke inhalation.

About 220,000 people have now been evacuated from the main forest fire raging in the south-west of France that threatens the city of Bordeaux, according to French authorities.

The latest evacuations have been in villages around Bordeaux while 60km (37 miles) of the main A63 highway from Bordeaux to the Spanish border has been closed because of the fires, regional authorities said.

Authorities have evacuated residents from several neighbourhoods in Marcheprime in south-western France because of the fast-moving wildfire spreading across the Gironde region. Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images

About 1,500 French firefighters and military reinforcements have been deployed around the clock to fight the wildfires in south-western France. Photograph: Jeanne Accorsini/SIPA/Shutterstock

Some of the photos emerging from France and Spain paint a dramatic picture of the evolving crisis:

Firefighters work to control a fire in Ares, France. Photograph: Jeanne Accorsini/SIPA/Shutterstock

Photograph: Stéphane Mahé/Reuters

Residents in the town of Lacanau, south-western France, are among the many at risk from the raging fires. Photograph: Julien de Rosa/AFP/Getty Images

Firefighters spray water along the edge of a forest in an attempt to contain a fire burning near the French town of Lege-Cap-Ferret. Photograph: Julien de Rosa/AFP/Getty Images

Authorities in France’s Gironde region, where Bordeaux is located, issued overnight evacuation orders for five more localities including some on the city’s approaches.

Their statement said gusting winds fed the flames overnight, accelerating the spread of the fire that has been burning out of control since midweek.

Opening summary

Hello and welcome back to our rolling coverage of the wildfires spreading through parts of Spain and France.

Thousands crowded into emergency shelters in France and Spain on Sunday after wildfires drove more than 300,000 people to flee their homes and holiday accommodation.

France has been worst affected by the wildfires, with an approximate area of 42,000 hectares burnt by the flames.

French authorities said that more than 220,000 people have now been evacuated from the main forest fire raging in the south-west of the country.

A local resident uses a hose to put out flames burning across the road from his house near Marcheprime, outside Bordeaux in France. Photograph: Emma Da Silva/AP

About 55,000 people were ordered to leave villages around Bordeaux in the Gironde region during the night as flames from the wildfire spread.

In Spain, over 90,000 people have been evacuated from the regions around Madrid and Ávila, as fires continue to spread there. Spanish authorities have ordered new evacuations near Toledo, south-west of Madrid.

The interior ministry said residents of Buenaventura, Navamorcuende, Real de San Vicente, Hinojosa de San Vicente, Castillo de Bayuela, Garciotum, Nuno Gomez and Pelahustan were told to leave their homes.

On Saturday evening, Spain’s interior ministry said a man had died in a fire in Manises, in Valencia. He had been found in a car in a ravine, officials said.

The blazes have destroyed houses, displaced people on a massive scale and triggered one of the largest peacetime civilian evacuation operations ever carried out in France, with major fires still burning in both countries.