A monster wildfire tearing through southwest France grew so powerful that its smoke column became a thunderstorm - generating lightning which ignited a slew of new fires.

Images taken following the outbreak of a fire near Saumos, in France's Gironde department, show a terrifying wall of smoke stretching into the sky for miles.

The now 162-square mile blaze sparked on July 22, and has rapidly eaten away at the community.

Read more here.

A wildfire in France has generated a pyrocumulonimbus, scientists have said(Image: AP Photo/Emma Da Silva)

The pyrocumulonimbus has been raining lightning that has caused new fires(Image: AP Photo/Caroline Blumberg)

PyroCBs only usually develop in the most extreme of environments(Image: AP Photo/Emma Da Silva)

Wildfire is spreading through the Restonica Valley in the Corte Forest on Corsica with 1,000 hectares scorched.

French emergency services say that soldiers are "deploying 2 km of hoses to contain the advance of the flames".

It adds: "Every night for the past week, between 10 and 20 soldiers remain in the mountains to ensure constant surveillance and quickly address any flare-ups.

"Aerial and ground resources are working in close collaboration to protect and rescue populations and our environment."

Emmanuel Macron has claimed France is facing its most difficult situation since the Second World War as the country continues to battle the 'unprecedented' wildfires.

Speaking to journalists and emergency service workers following a crisis meeting earlier today, the French President said: “We have a situation that is more difficult than at any time since the Second World War.

“The weeks ahead will be hard,” he added.

A 38-year-old volunteer firefighter has died in Bouches-du-Rhône with his colleagues paying tribute/

A statement from the Saint-Étienne-du-Grès Fire and Rescue said he died "in the line of duty".

The fire service said that the incident happened during a response to the wildfire, where he was "heading to refuel the CCF 4000 fire engine he was in" when, "in circumstances yet to be clarified ," the vehicle left the road.

Emergency services went to his aid but he could not be saved.

No TGV trains will run south of Bordeaux on Tuesday, except for those serving Agen and Toulouse, due to the wildfires raging in southwestern France, SNCF said.

The train operator has extended the cancellations covering the Gironde region.

"Given the exceptional situation caused by the fires," Bordeaux will be the last stop for trains heading towards Toulouse from Paris, said SNCF.

TGV trains departing from Bordeaux to Arcachon, Hendaye, and Tarbes via Dax are cancelled, as are those in the opposite direction. The Intercity night train between Paris and Tarbes also remains cancelled.

Firefighters tackle a blaze as wildfires rage near Le Las, outside Bordeaux(Image: AP Photo/Emma Da Silva)

More than 360,000 people have been evacuated from southern Europe - and millions more have been told to avoid the worst-hit areas as fires have destroyed a land mass the size of Cornwall.

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The mayor of Bordeaux says that wildfire is now nine miles from the city and that he braced for "all eventualities".

Thomas Cazenave said: "We are preparing to accommodate a large number of people should further evacuations be ordered."

France’s Interior Ministry says 13,566 fires have swept across over 116,000 hectares (448 square miles) since January, the highest annual figure in the country’s modern records.

A series of aerial photos of the town La Porge have captured the scale of devastation wrought by the wildfires as they continue to rage throughout the outskirts of Bordaeux.

After several days of uninterrupted spread of the massive wildfire on the outskirts of Bordeaux, the situation remained generally stable overnight(Image: AFP via Getty Images)

This aerial view shows damaged houses in a burnt area in the town of Le Porge,(Image: AFP via Getty Images)

(Image: AFP via Getty Images)

This aerial picture shows smoke billowing from a forested area near Le Porge, in southwestern France(Image: AFP via Getty Images)

A fire in Gros Bessillon, in the Var region of southeast France is "still dynamic, unpredictable," and "far from contained ," says Prefect Simon Babre.

The fire has intensified this afternoon on the seventh day that emergency services have been tackling it.

Mistral winds have worsened the conditions with authorities reporting 60 houses affected by fire - 33 of which have been destroyed, the majority of them in the town of Cotignac.

A plane flies over the flames in Cotignac(Image: AFP via Getty Images)

France's Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez says firefighters are battling an "unprecedented" situation on the outskirts of Bordeaux and the blaze continues to rage and has developed a "life of its own."

Following a government crisis meeting, Nuñez told reporters that recent weather conditions have caused the fire to behave in a "completely erratic manner" that defies typical wildfire patterns.

"It is autonomous, self-sustaining, and spreads in all directions. So it is a fire that's difficult to control," he said.

Around 80 firefighters have been injured tackling the wildfire in Gironde which has ravaged some 42,000 hectares since Wednesday.

Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez confirmed the figure adding that "relatively few requiring hospital treatment".

Emmanuel Macron and Laurent Nunez discuss the crisis with fire chiefs in Bordeaux(Image: POOL/AFP via Getty Images)

Prince William and Kate have said their thought are with those affected by the wildfires.

A statement from Kensington Palace reads: "Our thoughts are with everyone affected by the devastating wildfires across France, Spain and the UK.

"We are deeply grateful to the firefighters, emergency services and volunteers working tirelessly in extraordinarily difficult conditions.

"These events are a stark reminder of the challenges posed by an increasingly extreme climate and the importance of protecting both people and nature. W."

Wildfire ripping through much of Spain is causing extreme measures to care for livestock.

The Community of Madrid has already distributed 75,000kg of fodder to supply livestock farms affected by the wildfire in the Sierra Norte region.

The regional government made the distribution in Pelayos de la Presa to farms in the area and in Colmenar del Arroyo to an extensive livestock operation with more than 740 hectares of affected pasture.

And officers of the Civil Guard can be seen feeding cows in Cenicientos also in the Community of Madrid. A message shared on X read: "Part of the operation deployed in response to the forest fires, we continue to provide support to the public in everything necessary.

"In Cenicientos, we are working on tasks such as feeding the affected livestock."

The mayor of Cestas near Bordeaux says it "will be the fire of the century".

Jerome Steffe says 17,000 residents were evacuated from the town two days ago with 42,000 hectares of land burned, and 240 houses destroyed. "In my city the situation is really catastrophic," he told the BBC.

"We put all our energy into creating protective firebreaks," he said "We are all scared in front of this situation."

The Spanish weather agency has warned of another heatwave which will run until Sunday as the wildfire continues to rage.

Aemet wrote on X: "Special notice - heatwave. It will affect much of the Peninsula and the Canary Islands.

"The heatwave will be long: it will last, at least, until Sunday. The risk of fires will rise to extreme levels."

A map shows the new areas on Tuesday with a yellow danger warning and orange - which is for extreme danger. These warnings are far more widespread than today.

Spain's Ecology Minister Sara Aagesen, says that more than 170,000 hectares have been affected by forest fires in Spain so far this year.

This figure is six times greater than the number of hectares affected in 2025, a year the minister described as “extraordinarily difficult in terms of fires.”

She stated: “We are experiencing very extreme weather. As AEMET (the Spanish State Meteorological Agency) announced today, we are going to suffer the fourth heat wave of the summer. It will begin on Wednesday and last at least until Sunday, which leads to a much higher risk of fires."

A firefighter comforts a local resident in the Tietar Valley area of Avila Province(Image: Xinhua/Shutterstock)

France's Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez says that the fire in Gironde is"stabilised" but not "contained" as it continues to burn but is not spreading.

In an update he stated that more than 116,000 hectares have now been burnt in France during"an unprecedented and completely exceptional season".

Heat waves and scant rainfall in Europe have contributed to historic wildfires in France and Spain that have forced hundreds of thousands of people to flee their homes in one of the biggest evacuation efforts since World War II.

Rising temperatures later this week could complicate efforts to battle the blazes that have scorched an area four times the size of Paris in southwestern France and are raging near Spain’s capital, Madrid.

Firefighters in Spain have called the blazes so violent that they could not be tackled head on. But the first glimmer of hope emerged Monday in France that the spread of a giant fire in the southwestern Gironde region may have slowed.

France’s Interior Ministry says fires have swept across 115,000 hectares (444 square miles) since January, the highest annual figure in the country’s modern records. Spain’s Minister for the Ecological Transition, Sara Aagesen, said the 153,000 hectares (591 square miles) burned this year is six times the amount that burned through the first half of 2025.

Contributing to this year’s total was Spain’s largest and third-largest fires ever in just over a week, with a blaze in the rural terrain of Ávila west of Madrid burning over 50,000 hectares. Earlier this month, 13 people died in a blaze in southeastern Almeria, Spain’s deadliest fire in recent memory.

Over 300,000 people have been displaced from their homes in France and Spain in what the EU on Monday called “one of the biggest evacuation operations in Europe.”

More than 250,000 people have been evacuated in France, with 220,000 of them in the southwestern region of Gironde. With France about to enter its peak August tourist season, Gironde authorities took steps to keep vacationers away, banning holiday camps for children and for people with disabilities.

A total of 76,000 people have been evacuated in Spain while 30,000 others have been confined to their homes, the government said.

A damaged vehicle and property from wildfire in the Gironde area of France(Image: Anadolu via Getty Images)

Gironde authorities have warned that they could be fighting raging blazes near Bordeaux for "several weeks or even several months", Lieutenant Colonel David Annotel, spokesperson for the National Firefighters Federation of France told Franceinfo.

He said that the "real challenge is endurance" and reflected that the 2022 Landiras wildfire was not considered officially extinguished until 2025.

"We're looking at a similar situation. For many weeks and months, crews from all over France will have to continue rotating in."

Four more firefighters have been injured battling the wildfires in France, the Gironde prefecture has announced.

That brings the total number of injured to 88 since the fires began. There was also "a violent flare-up" on the eastern side of the fire (closer to Bordeaux).

"Significant ground resources were deployed along the D211 road to stop and contain its spread," the prefecture said, adding that the situation remained "unfavourable", however.

But weather conditions are looking better today. Firefighting efforts have therefore focused on "clearing the fire's edges and establishing tactical firebreaks, supported by aerial resources" throughout the day.

Firefighters tackle a blaze near Le Las, outside Bordeaux(Image: AP Photo/Emma Da Silva)

The interactive map below shows the areas in France, Spain, Portugal and the UK that have been scorched by wildfires since last Monday, July 20.

Spanish Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska told reporters on Monday that "today and tomorrow are absolutely decisive days" for bringing the blazes under control, "because from Wednesday, the weather forecasts become highly unfavourable for firefighting efforts".

The country's weather service, AEMET, said that from tomorrow onwards, the fire risk will "surge to very high or extreme levels across almost the entire country".

"This situation will persist, or may even worsen, in the following days," it added.

Personnel from Spain's Military Emergencies Unit (UME) fight a wildfire near Navas del Rey, 34 miles south-west of Madrid(Image: UME/AFP via Getty Images)

Rachel Hanberry, a British woman living in Biscarrosse-Plage, a small coastal town south-west of Bordeaux, said the ongoing wildfires have made her feel as though she is living in a war zone.

"Everyone came here on Thursday night," she told BBC 5 Live. "It felt like we were in a war zone, [there were] people with emergency blankets around their shoulders." "People who had nowhere to go. We offered our home to people," she said.

Ms Hanberry said the community has "lost so much", adding: "The stress and trauma that you feel as someone living here is immense."

A firefighter vehicle drives past as a forest fire rages in Saint-Jean-d’Illac, about 19 miles from Bordeaux, on Sunday(Image: AFP via Getty Images)

In Italy’s southern Puglia region, a wildfire fanned by strong winds broke out yesterday afternoon near Peschici, burning through pine forest and scrubland and forcing around 300 tourists to evacuate beaches and campsites, authorities said.

The Coast Guard evacuated tourists by sea to nearby Vieste, where temporary shelters were opened.

Three Canadair water-bombing planes and fire crews on the ground continued to battle the blaze today.

Burning trees and grass near the village of Sagana, in the Monreale area of Sicily, Italy, on July 22(Image: AFP via Getty Images)

In the Gironde region in south-west France, authorities have taken steps to keep tourists away from popular spots such as Arcachon Bay, Cap-Ferret and Le Porge by closing a major motorway and banning holiday camps for children.

Local official Sophie Brocas said: "We urge tourists not to come to this region, at least until the situation is under control. I encourage tourists who are already here to consider another destination."

The Foreign Office has said British nationals heading to affected areas should "check ahead" with their accommodation provider.

Travel agency industry body ABTA told the Mirror: "For people due to travel, they should keep in touch with their travel provider, as any operational changes or advice will depend on the specific destination and itinerary.

"They should monitor the local news in the regions and any instructions or updates from the local authorities, as well as any guidance provided by their accommodation provider and travel company.

"We would also advise people scheduled to travel to check the Foreign Office advice for travel to France and Spain."

Fires burn through a pine forest near Le Porge(Image: Le Gonidec Margot/ABACA/Shutterstock)

British tourists are being warned to "check ahead" if they have plans to travel to one of the areas affected by wildfires. These are:

France

• Arcachon
• Arès
• Biscarrosse
• Bordeaux
• Cap-Ferret
• Eysines
• Fontainebleau forest
• Gironde
• Lacanau
• Landes
• Le Barp
• Le Haillan
• Le Porge
• Marcheprime
• Mérignac
• Moutchic
• Saint-Jean-d'Illac
• Saumos
• Tarn
• Var

Spain

• Ávila
• Betxí
• Burgohondo
• Casavieja
• Castellón
• Castilla-La Mancha
• Chapinería
• Guadalajara
• La Adrada
• Madrid
• Manises
• Nules
• Pelayos de la Presa
• Robledo de Chavela
• San Martín de Valdeiglesias
• Toledo
• Valencia
• Villamanta
• Villaviciosa de Odón

Burned cars sit outside a home after a wildfire raged through Pelayos de la Presa, 40 miles west of Madrid(Image: AFP via Getty Images)

Live wildfire trackers show the blazes encroaching on parts of the Bordeaux metropolitan area.

The fires, which have ravaged the Cap Ferret peninsula and burned an area four times the size of Paris, are about seven miles from the city of Bordeaux. There are currently no plans to evacuate the city's population of about 850,000, although further evacuations could be ordered elsewhere in the wider metropolitan area, officials said.

More than 220,000 people have so far been evacuated from their homes across the Gironde region, where the main blaze began last Wednesday in a pine forest near the village of Saumos, about 25 miles west of Bordeaux.

(Image: Datawrapper)

Bordeaux Airport’s hotel zone has been evacuated until further notice as wildfires continue to burn around seven miles from the city. Services at the airport remain unaffected.

The Parc des Expositions de Bordeaux-Lac, one of the main reception centres for people evacuated by wildfires in Gironde, pictured on Sunday(Image: Anadolu via Getty Images)

Bordeaux Mayor Thomas Cazenave said the city is preparing to accommodate large numbers of people if further evacuations are ordered.

Speaking at a press conference this morning, he said he is "very cautious" and "prepared for all eventualities".

"We are preparing to welcome very large numbers of people if further evacuations are ordered," he said. Food supplies and mattresses have been stockpiled in large quantities over the past few days.

Cazenave urged residents to "stay alert to official messages", adding: "Everything is being done to ensure that people who need accommodation are being looked after in the best possible conditions."

He previously said there were no plans to evacuate Bordeaux’s population of around 850,000.

Smoke from nearby wildfires covers the skyline of Bordeaux on Sunday(Image: AFP via Getty Images)

Firefighters in Gironde are still struggling to bring the blaze under control.

"The weather conditions are favourable, with less wind. But there are still active fires," Captain Wilfried Schneider of SDIS 33, the Gironde Fire and Rescue Service, told the AFP news agency.

"The most active of these is between Marcheprime and Pierroton," on the outskirts of the Bordeaux metropolitan area, he said.

Live wildfire trackers show the fire is around seven miles from the wine city, which has a population of around 850,000.

The image below, shared on Instagram by SDIS 33, shows the blaze ravaging woodland in Saumos, a village around 25 miles west of Bordeaux, last night.

"Another night of intensive work. Determination intact, total commitment. We’re carrying on," the fire service wrote in the caption.