{"id":564115,"date":"2026-07-23T10:54:12","date_gmt":"2026-07-23T10:54:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/564115\/"},"modified":"2026-07-23T10:54:12","modified_gmt":"2026-07-23T10:54:12","slug":"more-than-10000-evacuated-in-southern-france-as-wildfires-spread-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/564115\/","title":{"rendered":"More than 10,000 evacuated in southern France as wildfires spread \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

More \u200cthan 10,000 people were evacuated overnight in \u200csouthwestern France <\/a>as a rapidly spreading wildfire <\/a>scorched \u200bthrough 2,000 hectares of land west of the city of Bordeaux, officials said \u200bon Thursday. <\/p>\n

Wildfires have burnt more land \u2060in Europe already this year \u200cthan the \u200cannual \u200baverage in the past two decades, data shows, \u2060as \u200bthe world\u2019s fastest-warming continent has \u200bendured three stifling, virtually back-to-back \u200cheatwaves so far this \u200byear.<\/p>\n

Five hundred firefighters are battling \u2060to control \u2060the \u200bblaze, the prefecture said, adding that the wildfire was very rough, but that no one has been injured so far.<\/p>\n

The wildfire is located near \u200cthe Arcachon \u2060Bay area, a tourist hotspot, and many of those evacuated \u200care tourists staying in camping sites. <\/p>\n

\"FirefightersFirefighters extinguishing fires from a wildland water truck in Le Porge, southwestern France on Thursday. Photograph: Romain Perrocheau\/AFP via Getty Images \"AA wildfire rages through a forestry area in Le Porge, southwestern France early. Photograph: Romain Perrocheau\/AFP via Getty Images <\/p>\n

Firefighters battling wildfires in Spain and \u200cFrance said the risk of more blazes over the coming days was very high, even as a major fire raging in Spain\u2019s central Guadalajara province receded, allowing some residents to return home. <\/p>\n

In France, where two firefighters died on Tuesday as their truck was engulfed in flames in the southwest region of Gironde, authorities urged people to avoid using barbecues in areas hit by heatwaves, stressing that nine out of 10 wildfires start, accidentally or not, as a result of human activity.<\/p>\n

In the western Balkans, the danger has shifted from heatwaves to hailstorms, with several people injured in North Macedonia and eastern Kosovo.<\/p>\n

Scientists say human-driven climate change is increasing \u200bthe intensity of heatwaves, droughts and wildfires, while also creating conditions for sudden, destructive storms. The Reuters Climate Monitor, an interactive tool providing real-time data, showed the average high temperature across western Europe is forecast to be 26.6 degrees, which is 3 degrees above the normal high for July \u206022nd in the period from 1961 to 1990.<\/p>\n

Spain\u2019s worst wildfire this year has burned an estimated 32,000 hectares (79,000 acres) in the Guadalajara region. It started to stabilise on Tuesday after forcing evacuations \u200cin \u200c34 municipalities \u200band confinement orders in 14 others.<\/p>\n

Castilla-La Mancha\u2019s fire service said residents of five villages had been authorised to return, although other restrictions remained in place.<\/p>\n

Visiting the region on Wednesday, prime minister Pedro S\u00e1nchez said Spain had already suffered 22 major wildfires this year.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have already reached 100,000 hectares before reaching the most critical period of the year in \u2060the fight against wildfires,\u201d he said. \u201cTo put that into perspective, that is the annual average that \u200bSpain experienced over the past decade,\u201d he said, adding that more must be done to prevent fires.<\/p>\n

Spain\u2019s weather \u200bagency said the danger of wildfires remained \u201cvery high or extreme\u201d across most of mainland Spain and the Balearic Islands and was expected to increase further in the coming days.<\/p>\n

It urged people to \u201cexercise extreme caution\u201d as the ongoing heatwave combined with dry \u200cthunderstorms and Saharan dust.<\/p>\n

While temperatures will ease slightly in some areas on Thursday, \u200ba dry westerly wind is forecast to drive a fresh surge of heat in Mediterranean regions, where highs of 42 to 44 degrees could be recorded in some areas.<\/p>\n

A marked cool-down is expected from Friday. However, \u2060the respite may be brief. Temperatures are forecast to rise again from Sunday, and intense heat \u2060could return across much of Spain early next week.<\/p>\n

So far this year, 44,000 hectares have burned in France, much more than the average, interior minister Laurent Nunez said in \u200cGironde, where he travelled on Wednesday, to pay \u2060tribute to the two firefighters who died on Tuesday fighting another fire in the area.<\/p>\n

Officials said another fire was raging in the Hautes-Alpes, also in southeastern France.<\/p>\n

In Greece, with temperatures forecast to top 41 degrees, authorities have banned outdoor work at peak midday sun. In Cyprus, which is also used to high summer temperatures, working outdoors was banned during afternoon hours on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

In Skopje, \u200ccapital of North Macedonia, 11 people were admitted to hospital, three of them with serious injuries, after a storm on Tuesday night felled trees, damaged roofs and caused power outages across the Balkan country, local media reported.<\/p>\n

Roads were blocked and some towns left without electricity and water.<\/p>\n

In \u200bKosovo, the Hydrometeorological Institute said more storms were expected on Wednesday and warned of possible lightning strikes, damage to the electricity network, power outages, flooding and property \u200bdamage.<\/p>\n

Local media showed roofs being blown away, torrential rain and residents covering their cars with blankets on Tuesday to protect them from hail. \u2013 Reuters<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"More \u200cthan 10,000 people were evacuated overnight in \u200csouthwestern France as a rapidly spreading wildfire scorched \u200bthrough 2,000…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":564116,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[2885,1814,42,43,40,38,41,39,18335],"class_list":["post-564115","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-climate-change","tag-france","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-weather-events"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/564115","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=564115"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/564115\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/564116"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=564115"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=564115"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=564115"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}