Europe wildfires: ‘Difficult hours lie ahead’ in battle to contain fires, says Pedro Sanchez as more than 300,000 flee homes in France and Spain

Why This Matters

Key context: <p>Fires displace people on massive scale and trigger one of the largest peacetime civilian evacuation operations ever carried out in France</p><ul><li><p><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jul/25/wildfires-force-250000-people-to-evacuate-in-france-and-spain">More than 250,000 people flee wildfires in France and Spain</a></p></li></ul><p>As my colleagues <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jul/24/france-evacuation-cap-ferret-peninsula-wildfire">note in this story</a>, scientists say climate breakdown is triggering more frequent and more extreme weather events, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/jul/23/climate-crisis-heat-sucking-soils-dry-extreme-drought-europe-analysis">evaporating soils</a> and waterways, fuelling wildfires and leading to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jul/22/france-recorded-more-than-5700-excess-deaths-during-june-heatwave">thousands of excess deaths</a>. Europe is heating at about twice the global average rate.</p><p>Spain’s environment ministry has said that 32 major forest fires have been recorded so far this year, compared with seven over the same period in 2025.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2026/jul/26/europe-wildfires-spain-france-bordeaux-madrid-evacuations">Continue reading...</a> This development from The Guardian highlights ongoing changes in the sector.