Updated July 29, 2026 at 1:33 PM AST
Authorities in France and Spain say some of the countries' wildfires that have raged for nearly a week are mostly contained, but other fires are blazing on, and a new wave of extreme heat, dry conditions and strong winds is raising fears of more fires to come.
In southwestern France, two major fires that began last week have burned through about 100,000 acres of forests, farmland and villages.
The response has involved thousands of firefighters, military personnel and international support. Around 5,000 people are battling the flames in France, while the European Union has sent firefighting aircraft and helicopters to assist French Canadair planes that scoop water and dump it on the flames.
At the height of the crisis, more than 200,000 people had to evacuate their homes and vacation sites in France and nearly 100,000 in Spain. Tens of thousands of evacuees have been authorized by the governments of both countries to return.
The worst-hit area in France is the wine-growing Gironde region along the Atlantic coast, known for its beaches, surfing and enormous pine forests.
It is home to the Landes Forest, man-made woodlands of pine trees were planted in the 1700s to help absorb swampy soil. But today, those forests have become a massive source of fuel for wildfires.
Repeated heatwaves have left the landscape dangerously dry.
This comes as climate change, brought on primarily by the burning of fossil fuels, is making heat waves last longer and peak at higher temperatures than in the past.
Europe is warming faster than any other continent and the number of extreme heat days is expected to multiply, says Mounia Mostefaoui, a climatologist and board member of a French scientific expert group on climate change.
"These heat waves, they create drought conditions. It's exactly what we have currently in France [where] we had three heat waves," Mostefaoui says. "We are only in July, August has not even started."
France is now facing a fourth heatwave this summer — creating what experts describe as the perfect conditions for large-scale wildfires.
Firefighters say these blazes have been especially challenging because they can change direction quickly and behave in unpredictable ways.
Scientists say France is experiencing a phenomenon more commonly seen in places like California: fire clouds, or pyrocumulus clouds.
Jean-Baptiste Filippi, a scientist with the French National Center for Scientific Research who specializes in fire-weather forecasting, says these clouds form when an intense fire interacts with the atmosphere.
Filippi says that creates a powerful exchange of heat and energy that can strengthen the fire itself.
"Any time you have a cloud that is forming, you have energy in the atmosphere. But the fact that the fire is there is making this energy available for the fire, so the interaction becomes strong," he says.
Filippi says a column of hot gases and rising winds can create a cloud that reaches up to 6 miles high. Once that happens, he says, these fires become almost impossible to stop — much like a storm cannot simply be shut down.
That is what happened during the wildfires in France's Bordeaux region over the weekend.
Because of the unpredictable nature of these fires, authorities evacuated more than 200,000 people before the flames could threaten communities.
Madrid's wildfire is largely contained, but blazes in Castellón rage on
In neighboring Spain, crews are still fighting fires that broke out one week ago, but authorities say there has been progress in some areas. In the Madrid region, the fire remained stable overnight, allowing tens of thousands of residents to return home.
But the fire in the Castellón region is still out of control after burning nearly 25,000 acres and forcing more than 10,000 people to evacuate.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez visited emergency command facilities and warned that the danger has not passed.
"There are currently 10 active wildfires in Spain," he said. Sánchez urged residents to remain extremely cautious during the ongoing heatwave, which is expected to continue through Sunday.
Hundreds of firefighters in Castellón and the Valencia region remain deployed as fires continue burning in largely uninhabited areas.
The extreme heat and other conditions fueling these wildfires continue in other parts of Europe.
In the southern Greek island of Crete, two firefighters have died battling a wildfire, The Associated Press reported.
Eleanor Beardsley reported from Paris. Miguel Macias reported from Seville, Spain.
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