{"id":51875,"date":"2026-07-26T08:32:32","date_gmt":"2026-07-26T02:47:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/?p=51875"},"modified":"2026-07-26T08:32:32","modified_gmt":"2026-07-26T02:47:32","slug":"more-than-300000-flee-wildfires-in-france-and-spain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/more-than-300000-flee-wildfires-in-france-and-spain\/","title":{"rendered":"More than 300,000 flee wildfires in France and Spain"},"content":{"rendered":"
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BBC: Firefighters are struggling to contain wildfires in south-west France as strong winds push flames towards the city of Bordeaux, with one official saying they “are far from having the fire under control.”<\/p>\n

More than 300,000 people in France and Spain have fled fires which have been raging for days, as winds and high temperatures hamper efforts to contain them.<\/p>\n

In Spain, where a state of emergency has been declared, a change in weather conditions has helped firefighters outside Madrid.<\/p>\n

Spanish PM Pedro S\u00e1nchez admitted there were “complex times ahead”. Meanwhile, authorities in Val\u00e8ncia confirmed the death of a man in a fire.<\/p>\n

The man, believed to be in his 70s, was found dead in his car by firefighters as they extinguished a fire in the Salt de l’Aigua ravine in Manises, according to local media reports.<\/p>\n

In France, a further 55,000 were ordered to evacuate late on Saturday, taking the total to around 250,000 people in south-western regions of Gironde and Landes regions.<\/p>\n

Firefighter Captain Nicolas Braz told AFP news agency that the fire had created “its own winds – complete with whirlwinds”, adding it was “erratic and unmanageable”.<\/p>\n

It is set to be another “difficult night,” he said.France has mobilised its military to help with the response and extra reinforcements from the army have been sent to help firefighters by clearing brush and creating fire breaks.<\/p>\n

President Emmanuel Macron said France would “rebuild” and his government would “be there for as long as is needed”.<\/p>\n

Map of south-west France showing active wildfires recorded in the last 24 hours. Large clusters of red dots mark fire activity around Arcachon Bay, concentrated between L\u00e8ge-Cap-Ferret and Le Porge on the Atlantic coast. A second sizeable cluster is located near Biscarrosse to the south. Smaller isolated fire detections appear east of Bordeaux.<\/p>\n

Bordeaux is labelled inland to the east, while Arcachon Bay and the Bay of Biscay are labelled in blue along the coastline. An inset map of France in the top left highlights the location of the affected area. Source: NASA FIRMS data as of 25 July.
\nThe wind blew smoke towards the city of Bordeaux on Saturday and people reported an acrid smell in the air.<\/p>\n

One tourist who fled an approaching wildfire near Bordeaux with his family described the scale of the blaze as “frightening”.<\/p>\n

Spencer Randall told the BBC his family evacuated in the early hours of Saturday to an area 100 miles east, but they can “still smell the wildfires from here”.\u00a0“It’s quite strong winds fanning the flames, just terrifying,” he said.<\/p>\n

A British couple holidaying in Bordeaux said they noticed the flames get worse on Friday night, as the fire approached.<\/p>\n

“At about seven o’clock you could smell smoke. We thought someone was having a barbecue,” Maisie told BBC Newsbeat from their holiday rental.<\/p>\n

Her partner, Caleb, said the ash has now covered the pool in the house and turned their feet black when walking outside.<\/p>\n

The smoke “really hits your lungs right away”, they added.\u00a0Nearby, in Saint-Aubin-de-M\u00e9doc, residents evacuating said the situation was “stressful”, with one local describing it a “disaster”.<\/p>\n

The final leg of the Tour de France, due to take place Sunday, has been shortened from 133km (83 miles) to 89km (55 miles) so that security forces can be redeployed to areas affected by wildfires, organisers and police have said.<\/p>\n

Macron is set to have an emergency meeting with ministers as 30 or so fires rage across the country – a situation which the government said is totally unprecedented.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BBC: Firefighters are struggling to contain wildfires in south-west France as strong winds push flames towards the city of Bordeaux, with one official saying they “are far from having the fire under control.” More than 300,000 people in France and Spain have fled fires which have been raging for days, as winds and high temperatures […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":51876,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-51875","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51875"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51875"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51875\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":51878,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51875\/revisions\/51878"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/51876"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51875"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51875"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51875"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}