Severe wildfires have caused a humanitarian crisis across southwestern France and Spain during late July 2026. In France, massive blazes in the Gironde region near Bordeaux have necessitated the evacuation of approximately 220,000 people, including the total clearance of the Cap Ferret peninsula. French Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu described the scale of the destruction—estimated at over 420,000 hectares—as unprecedented. President Emmanuel Macron has mobilized the military and requested European Union assistance, including aerial reinforcements from Croatia, Portugal, the Czech Republic, and Slovakia to aid the 500 firefighters already on the ground.

Simultaneously, Spain declared its first-ever national emergency due to wildfires following a series of blazes near Madrid and the Avila province. More than 10,000 people were forced to flee their homes as fires merged due to extreme heat and high winds. The crisis has resulted in at least one confirmed death in the Valencia region. Scientists attribute the intensity of these disasters to a series of back-to-back heatwaves and human-driven climate change, which have left vegetation exceptionally dry across the continent.