France orders total evacuation of Cap Ferret peninsula as wildfire spreads

France orders total evacuation of Cap Ferret peninsula as wildfire spreads. Authorities in south-western France have ordered the total evacuation of the Cap Ferret peninsula on the Atlantic coast by land and sea as an intense and highly unpredictable wildfire advances on one of the country’s best-known holiday spots.

According to reports, tens of thousands of people are being evacuated from the tourism destination west of Bordeaux, as firefighters continue to battle wildfires that have raged in the Gironde region for days. French Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez said 40,000 people had either been or were in the process of being evacuated from the Cap Ferret peninsula, which has the Atlantic on one side and the Bay of Arcachon on the other. The Cap Ferret fire had burned more than 10,000 hectares, or 24,700 acres, as of Friday, with thousands of tourists from campsites and rental homes included in the evacuation orders.

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Boats began ferrying holidaymakers and residents off four piers on the peninsula after the Gironde prefecture ordered its progressive evacuation, village by village, by sea or by the only road linking the area with the mainland. The mayor of Arès, which lies south-east of Lège-Cap Ferret on the Bay of Arcachon, confirmed his town was being evacuated. A local councillor noted that 2,000 evacuees from the peninsula had already arrived by boat in the port of Arcachon on the south side of the bay. Eighty houses had burned, with 50 of those described as completely destroyed.

Further down the Atlantic coast, around the town of Biscarosse in France's Landes region, another major fire that began on Thursday afternoon has prompted the evacuations of more than 23,000 people. About 18,000 people in Biscarrosse and 5,000 in Parentis-en-Born left their homes, campsites, a nursing home, and a summer camp. The Landes prefect, Gilles Clavreul, stated that this fire had burned through more than 2,500 hectares. More than 600 firefighters were working to contain that blaze, with officials noting that the situation remained highly dynamic.

French President Emmanuel Macron stated that the wildfire situation in the country was very tense, especially in the Gironde region. Macron requested help from the European Union, confirming that support would come in the form of aircraft from Croatia, Portugal, the Czech Republic, and Slovakia. This included two Croatian aircraft, two Portuguese planes, and two heavy helicopters from the Czech Republic and Slovakia.

Nuñez reported that 32 wildfires of varying size and intensity were burning across France, with 50,000 hectares scorched already this year. About 800 firefighters and four water-bombing planes were battling the Gironde blaze north of Arcachon Bay. In the south-eastern Var area, where weather conditions improved, some firefighting resources were redeployed to the south-west. Two firefighters died on Tuesday while tackling a blaze near Bordeaux airport.

Meanwhile, the government in Spain has declared a national emergency as wildfires burn in several areas close to the capital Madrid. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez stated that the situation was dramatic, urging people to take great care. Three fires were burning west of Madrid, at Villa del Prado and San Martín de Valdeiglesias. Spain’s interior ministry noted that the decision was taken following the simultaneous outbreak of several fires and the need to mobilise extensive resources from several public administrations. A national emergency allows the central government to assume overall control of powers and responsibilities that are usually the domain of Spain’s self-governing regions.

In the Madrid region, 10,000 people were evacuated from different villages as multiple fires raged. Spain’s environment ministry said 29 big forest fires had been recorded so far in 2026, with 114,796 hectares burned by the end of July. This included the second-largest fire in Spanish history, which consumed 320 square kilometres in the province of Guadalajara. Thirteen people were killed in a fire in southern Spain earlier this month. The European Forest Fire Information System reported that about twice as much land had burned in the EU by 22 July than the average for that date over the past two decades.