Key events
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Closing summary
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‘It’s an ecological disaster,’ locals say as volunteers battle new blaze in France
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Two firefighters died battling wildfires in Crete
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‘European solidarity knows no limit,’ EU’s von der Leyen says as she thanks firefighters from other EU countries for help
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Large areas of ‘very’ and ‘extremely’ poor air quality reported after wildfires in France, Spain
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Fire near Madrid ‘technically stabilised,’ minister says, but calls for caution
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Spain faces ‘complex’ situation with ‘three very tough days’ ahead, minister says
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Firefighters continue to tackle blazes in France, Spain – in pictures
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‘The fear is that with another heatwave, fires could start spreading again’
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EU ‘needs to focus on prevention’ as wildfires are expected to become bigger, more damaging, experts say
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EU’s crisis management team worries about difficult weeks ahead as continent battles wildfires
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Next 12 hours will be decisive to consolidate progress made in fight against wildfires, Spain’s Sánchez says
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Temperatures in high 30s, low 40s expected across France, Spain
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Firefighters continue to battle blazes in France, Spain – in pictures
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Morning opening: France and Spain brace for heatwave as they make progress battling wildfires
Closing summary
Jakub Krupa
And, on that note, we will be closing the blog for today.
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France and Spain are on high alert as the fourth heatwave of the summer complicates ongoing efforts to tackle devastating wildfires in both countries.
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Authorities expressed cautious optimism after making some progress in battling the blazes overnight (10:15, 14:30, 15:02), but warned against complacency as worsening weather conditions raised fears of some fires reigniting in the coming hours as temperatures are expected to hit high 30s and low 40s C.
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Spain’s prime minister Pedro Sánchez said this morning that next 12 hours will be “decisive” for a large wildfire burning near Madrid (11:41).
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Serious wildfires were also reported in other countries in Europe (15:23), with two firefighters killed battling a wildfire on the southern Greek island of Crete (16:56).
If you have any tips, comments or suggestions, email me at jakub.krupa@theguardian.com.
I am also on Bluesky at @jakubkrupa.bsky.social and on X at @jakubkrupa.
But in a bit more encouraging news, AFP and Liberation reported that the fire in Lanton (16:33) was brought under control this afternoon.
‘It’s an ecological disaster,’ locals say as volunteers battle new blaze in France
North of the beach town of Lanton in France, a full squadron of firefighting aircraft circled over and above the trees, disappearing into the haze to drop their seawater payloads in a bid to keep Wednesday’s major outbreak from turning into a self-propelling inferno, AFP reported.
On the ground, a line of fire trucks, tankers and hefty vehicles laden with cisterns of water by an army of dust-crusted volunteers stretched for several hundred metres along the road surrounding the forest.
AFP reported that with the Bordeaux region on alert for a fresh heatwave as temperatures approached 40C and the strong winds acting as bellows, many feared that it would not take much for a blaze like Lanton’s to jolt France’s worst wildfires since 1949 back into life.
“I’m 67 years old and I’ve never seen anything like this,” said Jean-Claude Bonnet, part of a crew of helpers aboard a Renault Midliner 150 truck carrying refills for the firefighters’ hoses.
“We were driving along the road toward here, and then I started crying,” he told AFP.
“The worst part is seeing the animals that have been burnt to death by the side of the road.
It’s an ecological disaster – call it what you will.
Two firefighters died battling wildfires in Crete
Two firefighters died battling a forest blaze on the Greek island of Crete, the fire department said as several fires broke out around the country amid gale-force winds.
“Two firefighters fell in the line of duty,” deputy fire department spokesperson Yiannis Artopios told AFP.
Ekathimerini newspaper reported that the wildfire raged through a forest in the Rhetymno region, prompting evacuation of villages Aghios Georgios, Aghios Pavlos, Sakthouria, Melabes and Krya Vryssi as more than 100 firefighters were sent to fight the blaze.
State TV ERT said the men had been trapped by the fire in their fire engine in the foothills of a mountain near the western city of Rethymno.
A smaller fire broke out near the village of Moroni in the Iraklio region.
Significant wildfires were also reported on the islands of Lesbos and Paros.
‘European solidarity knows no limit,’ EU’s von der Leyen says as she thanks firefighters from other EU countries for help
European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen took to social media to stress the importance of European solidarity during the wildfires in France and Spain.
In a post on X, she said:
“As the fires in France and Spain continue to ravage, European solidarity knows no limit.
Romania and Greece have decided to extend their missions, continuing their support to the affected regions. And from Saturday, Poland will join the fray.
Thank you for your courage and commitment.”
Following earlier concerns, there are some reports about new local fires in Spain and France.
Authorities are evacuating seven towns and villages in the Zamora region of Spain after another blaze was reported there and quickly escalated to level 2 risk, RTVE said.
Over in France, a major flare-up was reported near the seaside resort of Lanton, Le Figaro reported, with other flage-ups also reported in the most affected part of Lège-Cap Ferret, according to BFM TV.
I will keep an eye on that for you.
Sam Jones
Madrid correspondent
Spain has changed immeasurably since I arrived here 10 years ago to begin work as the Guardian’s Madrid correspondent.
Over that time, the push for Catalan independence has exploded, sputtered and faded out; the Covid pandemic has hit with unimaginable ferocity, before seeming to linger for a face-masked eternity; and Podemos and Ciudadanos – the two upstart parties that once seemed likely to alter the Spanish political landscape irrevocably – have risen and fallen.
But one change has been so insistent, so undeniable and so painfully visible, that it has come to eclipse all others. A decade ago, perhaps naively, I could never have imagined how much time I would spend reporting the effects of the climate emergency here and in Portugal. Nor would I ever have imagined that things would get this bad, this fast.
The facts, however, speak for themselves. Europe is the fastest-heating continent, warming at a speed more than twice that of the global average, and the Iberian peninsula has become the sometimes scorched, sometimes sodden, frontline of the climate crisis.
The wildfires still burning here and in France – which have led to the evacuation or confinement of approximately 330,000 people since last week – are merely the latest manifestation of all that.
Large areas of ‘very’ and ‘extremely’ poor air quality reported after wildfires in France, Spain
Damian Carrington
Environment editor
One of the serious long term impacts of wildfires is the heavy damage to health caused by the plumes of smoke they produce.
Large areas of “very” to “extremely” poor air quality were visible on Wednesday in Spain on the monitoring site of the European Environment Agency, along with a smaller area near Bordeaux.
About 1.5 million people a year die from the smoke from landscape fires, a 2024 study in The Lancet estimated.
Other countries are also experiencing problems related to extreme temperatures.
A wildfire in southwest Turkey has forced authorities to temporarily shut down a highway from the popular tourist hub of Fethiye to the city of Antalya, AP reported.
The blaze began in an agricultural area in Mugla province on Wednesday before spreading into a nearby forest area, driven by strong winds.
Five airplanes, 11 helicopters, 40 fire trucks and hundreds of personnel were dispatched to extinguish the fire, the Mugla governor’s office said. The statement called on motorists to use alternative routes and not to block emergency lanes.
Several fires were also reported in Greece, including on the Aegean island of Paros.
Over in Hungary, the country’s Paks nuclear power plant will shut down one of its four reactors because of record-low water levels on the Danube river, which supplies cooling water to the facility, operator MVM said.
Reuters said the plant, which operates four Russian-built reactors with a combined capacity of 2 gigawatts and produces nearly half of Hungary’s electricity, had already reduced output at another unit by 254 megawatts on Monday.
Meanwhile, just over half of England has been declared in drought after “record-low rain and exceptionally high temperatures”, the UK government said.
It follows what is set to be the driest July on record, with just seven percent of expected rainfall nationwide and some parts of southern England seeing just one percent, according to the government’s Environment Agency, AFP noted.
Fire near Madrid ‘technically stabilised,’ minister says, but calls for caution
Speaking at a press conference this afternoon, Grande-Marlaska also said the Sierra Oeste fire near Madrid has now been “technically stabilised,” although he cautioned that there is still lots of work to be done on fighting the blaze and preventing further flare-ups.
All evacuation and stay-at-home orders in the province of Ávila have been lifted, he said.
Spain faces ‘complex’ situation with ‘three very tough days’ ahead, minister says
Spanish interior minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska has warned the country faced a “complex” situation on wildfires with “three very tough days” ahead as temperatures rise once again and stronger winds risk reigniting some of the fires.
Speaking to TVE earlier today, he said the progress in current firefighting operations was “reasonably positive,” despite increasingly challenging weather conditions, with focus on air surveillance of existing fires to prevent further spread and reignitions.
Firefighters continue to tackle blazes in France, Spain – in pictures
‘The fear is that with another heatwave, fires could start spreading again’
Jane Clinton
Jeremie Bossert, 38, a mountain leader in L’Argentière-la-Bessée, south-eastern France, said the forest and mountain in front of his village have been on fire since Monday 15 July, and while it appears to be “under control”, he fears what the next heatwave will bring.
“We watched the fire consuming our beloved mountain and forest, approaching our houses and the smoke and ashes polluting our air,” he said. “More than a hundred firefighters worked hard to slow it.”
Bossert said it is thought the fire started by lightning.
“It’s not spreading now, and it’s not as huge as it was a few days ago,” he said.
“There was more wind on Tuesday (28 July), and the fire has restarted in a few places. People had to leave their houses because of the risk of rock falls from the mountain, as the trees keeping the rocks in place have been burned down, but they are now able to return.”
He said that despite having a wet winter with heavy snowfall, this was not enough given the heatwaves.
“Since May, we have had a drought we have never seen before,” he said. “Even though it was a wet winter with lots of snow on the mountains – a record in 15 years – this drought enabled the fire to spread quickly on a mountainside that is usually relatively humid.”
“This year many trees all over the local forest have started to pine away, also related to the repetition of heatwaves since very early in the season and with little breaks. The state of the forest – which I’ve never seen in the six years I’ve been living here – made it easier for the fire to spread.”
He adds:
“Right now, we could say it [the fire] is under control. But the fear is that with the heatwave that’s coming in the next few days and the wind picking up again, it could start spreading again.”
EU ‘needs to focus on prevention’ as wildfires are expected to become bigger, more damaging, experts say
Jennifer Rankin
in Brussels
Moises Galan Santano, a wildfires expert at the EU’s Emergency Response Coordination Centre, stressed that more needed to be done to prevent wildfires, which he said would be a task for many years.
“The [emergency] response is not only the answer. It’s the last answer. But it’s not all the answer. We need to focus on prevention.”
Officials said prevention encompassed many policies, such as early-warning systems, more animal grazing (to reduce vegetation) and changes to forest management.
Earlier this year a policy paper from the European Commission set out how European countries could better prevent and recover from wildfires that are expected to become bigger and more damaging across the continent.
It promoted measures, such as more extensive grazing, the restoration of wetlands, rivers and floodplains, better data on forest fires and raising public awareness of risky behaviour and safe evacuation.
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