![\"France's](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/frances-president-emmanuel-macron-center-speaks-to-the-press-AK74A5KQBJB6FM7IKBOHYETELY.jpg\")
<\/p>\nFrench President Emmanuel Macron urged fire crews to \u201cstay strong\u201d as they battled to bring a monster wildfire under control, warning that the fight will take time but vowing, \u201cWe will win this battle together.\u201d<\/p>\n
On a visit to a coordination centre for the massive firefighting effort in southwest France, Macron heard how the blaze raging since last week has been wildly unpredictable, transforming at times into a self-feeding fire storm as it burned through an area four times the size of Paris and forced 220,000 people to flee their homes.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe’re facing a completely unprecedented fire,\u201d Macron said, describing the situation as France’s worst fire-related crisis since World War II.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
France’s President Emmanuel Macron, center, speaks to the press next to Interior Minister Laurent Nunez, left, after a visit to the departmental fire and rescue operational centre in Bordeaux, France. (Source: Associated Press)<\/p>\n
He praised firefighting teams who stopped the inferno’s progression Monday after days of spreading flames that edged toward the wine region city of Bordeaux. But with woodlands still smoldering, he and other government officials cautioned that the battle isn\u2019t yet won, with forests turned tinder-dry by successive heat waves this year and another forecast for this week.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe weeks ahead will be hard. We must hold firm,\u201d Macron said.<\/p>\n
Fire crews racing against feared next heat wave<\/p>\n
With thousands of firefighters on the ground and rotations of water- and retardant-dropping aircraft, it became a race against time Monday to contain the blaze before temperatures soar, with national weather service forecasts of 35C and above in southwest France from Tuesday.<\/p>\n
Authorities also are working to feed, shelter and care for evacuees who fled in staggering numbers: 250,000 in the southwest, driven away by two fires.<\/p>\n
Macron spoke of displaced people \u201ctraumatised\u201d by the upheaval and \u201cwho sometimes have lost everything.\u201d<\/p>\n
No new evacuations were announced Monday. But with France about to enter its peak August tourist season, authorities for the Gironde region around Bordeaux worked to keep vacationers away, banning holiday camps for children and for people with disabilities. Government ministers also urged people not to travel to the region that is popular for its Atlantic beaches, famous wines and some of France’s largest expanses of forests.<\/p>\n
Crews using earth movers tore up strips of forest and scrubland to create barren spaces, intended to block the flames that officials said had come within 15km of Bordeaux’s outskirts. Farmers kept fire crews supplied with water, transporting it to them in tanks.<\/p>\n
Briefing Macron, the Gironde region’s fire chief explained how crews had wrestled with the blaze unlike any they’d previously tackled, extraordinarily virulent and capricious, \u201ca fire that’s going everywhere\u201d and which generated electrical storms that sparked more flare-ups.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe last 24 hours went well, thanks to your work\u201d Macron told firefighters. \u201cDoubtless, tomorrow will be more complicated than today.\u201d<\/p>\n
Spain is also battling fires<\/p>\n
Around a dozen countries have provided planes, helicopters, firefighters and other assistance to both France and Spain, which is also fighting unprecedented blazes. All told, fires in the two countries have forced more than 330,000 people to flee.<\/p>\n
In Spain, wildfires have burned out of control around Madrid and in the Valencia region. Authorities evacuated 79,000 people and confined 30,000 others to their homes.<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/a-campsites-bungalows-are-charred-after-it-was-ravaged-by-a-KVAOHUIXCVCJ3IR5ZFIAM5YN3U.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
A campsite’s bungalows are charred after it was ravaged by a wildfire in Pelayos de la Presa, Madrid province, Spain. (Source: Associated Press)<\/p>\n
In both Spain and France, the exceptional scale of the fires \u2014 fuelled by heat waves that hit especially hard and early this year, making forests and scrubland tinder-dry \u2014 are driving calls for stronger action against climate change.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat we are experiencing is not a series of isolated incidents. It is the consequence of a climate emergency that is making wildfires even more violent, heat waves more frequent,\u201d Spanish Prime Minister Pedro S\u00e1nchez said.<\/p>\n
A fire raging in hilly, rural terrain in \u00c1vila, west of Madrid, has become Spain\u2019s largest on record, scorching 500 square kilometres, the government said. That’s five times the size of Barcelona.<\/p>\n
\u201cLook at how the valley is burned. Look at the houses, the people,” said David Gonzalez, a 48-year-old gardener who used his van to run supplies to firefighters in \u00c1vila.<\/p>\n
“We are feeling lot of anger and helplessness. It\u2019s something inhuman,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Fires have burned 1530 square kilometres this year in Spain \u2014 six times the area scorched by blazes in the first half of 2025, said Sara Aagesen, the ecology minister.<\/p>\n
The minister said that another heat wave forecast from Tuesday \u2014 which would be Spain\u2019s fourth so far this year \u2014 could ratchet up the fire danger. Spain\u2019s weather agency forecast temperatures above 40C.<\/p>\n
Water-dropping planes combat fire in Italy<\/p>\n
A wildfire driven by strong winds broke out on Sunday afternoon near Peschici, in Italy\u2019s southern Puglia region, burning pine forest and scrub and forcing the evacuation of about 300 tourists from beaches and campgrounds, authorities said.<\/p>\n
The Coast Guard evacuated tourists by sea to nearby Vieste, where authorities opened temporary shelters.<\/p>\n
Three Canadair water-bombing planes and fire crews on the ground continued Monday to battle the blaze, which revived memories of devastating wildfires that hit the same coastal area in 2007.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"French President Emmanuel Macron urged fire crews to \u201cstay strong\u201d as they battled to bring a monster wildfire…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":548456,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39,1745],"class_list":["post-548455","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-uk-europe"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/548455","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=548455"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/548455\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/548456"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=548455"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=548455"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=548455"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}