Wildfires
rage across southern Europe, forcing thousands to flee homes
Tour de
France spectator ban as country along with Spain, Portugal and Greece faces
‘powder keg’ after heatwave
Jon
Henley Europe correspondent
Mon 6 Jul
2026 16.32 BST
Wildfires
raging across southern Europe have forced thousands to flee their homes and
prompted officials to ban spectators from a stage of the Tour de France, amid
warnings of “powder keg” conditions after a record-breaking early summer
heatwave.
Hundreds
of firefighters are tackling blazes that have burned through almost 20,000
hectares (49,500 acres) in Portugal, Spain, France and Greece. Strong winds are
forecast to fan the flames and temperatures are expected to rise again this
week.
In the
remote foothills of the French Pyrenees near the Spanish border, 700
firefighters were struggling to contain an out-of-control wildfire that has scorched 5,000 hectares and prompted the evacuation of
more than 10,000 people.
“This
morning, conditions are deteriorating again,” said the French interior minister,
Laurent Nuñez, on
Monday, adding that with wildfires now blazing in five departments, twice as
much land had burned in France so far this season compared with the same time
last year.
The EU
said on Monday it was sending four waterbombing aircraft to France from Cyprus and Sweden to help
firefighters around the city of Perpignan. “Europe stands with France,” the European Commission president,
Ursula von der Leyen, posted.
The
Pyrenees fire has nearly tripled in size since Sunday. “It came within 300
metres [984ft] of the houses. We were shocked by how fast it spread, it was
staggering – bordering on panic,” Patrice, from the village of Trévillach, told
Agence France-Presse.
The
blazes follow a premature May heatwave and another in June that shattered
temperature records across western Europe, caused thousands of excess deaths
and left vast areas of land particularly vulnerable to wildfires.
Chantal
Mauchet, the prefect of the Hérault department, where several fires have burned
through at least 300 hectares of land, said on Monday southern France’s
wildfire season had “essentially started three or more weeks early”.
The World
Weather Attribution group of scientists has said the extreme temperatures
recorded in June would have been “virtually impossible” without the climate
crisis. Temperatures are forecast to climb again this week, rising to 40C
locally.
“Climate
change is here, we are living the consequences and it is only the start of
July,” said the fire chief for Pyrénées-Orientales, Eric Belgioino. “This
season is going to be a long one for the soldiers fighting fires. You have to
help us.”
The
eastern Pyrenees prefect, Pierre Regnault de la Mothe, ordered Tour de France
spectators “not to go near the route or to the finish area” of Monday’s third
stage of the cycling race through the Pyrenees from Spain into France. He said
it would be “limited to the passage of the riders only and vehicles essential
to the race”.
On the
Spanish side of the border, fire has ravaged 2,200 hectares, 97% of
which has been in the protected natural area of Les Gavarres. The head of
operations of the Catalan fire service, Eduard Martinez, said the blaze had a
perimeter of 40km (25 miles).
Firefighters
said their efforts would be complicated by rising temperatures and the many
“smoking hotspots” within the perimeter, but announced late on Sunday that the
blaze was stable and they hoped it would be extinguished during the week.
South of Catalonia, in Spain’s eastern Castellón province, more than 500 people were
evacuated after a wildfire spread into the Sierra de Espadán national park.
In
central Portugal’s Vouzela area, more than 1,200 firefighters supported by
nearly 400 vehicles and 15 aircraft were trying to extinguish a blaze that
broke out on Thursday and had burned across an area of 13,000 hectares by
Sunday.
Spain and
Italy sent firefighters and aircraft to help and emergency services said on
Monday that while dangerous spots remained, 80% of the blaze was under control.
Portugal’s interior minister, Luís Neves, described conditions as a “powder
keg”.
Elsewhere,
large fires also destroyed hundreds of hectares of forest, vineyards and scrub
on the Croatian island of Hvar and at Tale in Albania, while in Greece, which
was largely spared last month’s heatwave, flames set off by a forest fire tore
through two factories in the northern city of Thessaloniki.
Greek
authorities issued evacuation alerts for three suburbs and urged residents in
parts of the city to stay indoors and shut their windows and doors because of
toxic smoke from one of the factories, a recycling plant.
Another
large wildfire broke out Sunday afternoon west of Athens, with 210
firefighters, supported by volunteers, specialised teams and 29 aircraft
deployed to tackle the blaze burning through pine forest in the Mandra area.
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