A wildfire near the Costa Brava has torn through around 750 hectares of forest, sparking stay-at-home orders for around 12,000 people in several municipalities

A wildfire has ripped through at least 750 hectares of forest near the Costa Brava, forcing as many as 12,000 people to shelter indoors.

The flames, fanned by the tramontana wind, remain active in Girona, northeast Spain, with a massive plume of smoke hovering over the tourist hotspot this evening.

Residents in the historical Empordà area have been sent preventive confinement orders affecting around 12,000 people.

The blaze started at around 9am local time near the northeastern municipality of La Bisbal d’Emporda, roughly 20km from the picturesque coastline.

A further 40,000 people were sent an Es-Alert - Spain's national public warning system for emergencies - on their mobiles phones, providing them with instructions on how to stay safe.

More than 200 firefighters have been deployed to tackle the blaze, which has reportedly sparked secondary outbreaks in the mountain massif of Les Gavarres. The fires have also forced the closure of several roads in the affected areas.

"The column (of smoke) is very slanted, it has formed a very violent pyrocumulus" that would keep shifting, Catalan fire service chief David Borrell said.

Emergency services said around 150 people had been evacuated, including around 70 children from a holiday camp.

The president of the regional government, Salvador Illa, has urged people to follow the authorities' instructions, while residents in the Barcelona area have been told to delay their usual weekend trips to this popular coastal destination.

Spanish politician Jorge Campos shared a video on X showing a massive cloud of smoke hovering over the Costa Brava.

He wrote: "They send me this video from the Costa Brava, where the magnitude of the devastating fire in Catalonia can be seen. All my support to those affected, and thanks to the emergency teams."

The popular stretch of coastline attracts hundreds of thousands of British tourists during peak summer months.

Official destination records show the UK ranks as the fourth largest international source market for the region.

Last summer, Spain suffered what Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez described as the worst wildfire season in the country's recent history.

Wildfires burned more than 393,000 hectares of land across Spain in 2025, according to the European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS).

The Ministry of the Interior said over 8,000 fires broke out, leading to eight deaths, 86 injuries, and the evacuation of more than 42,000 people.