More than 300,000 displaced in France and Spain as exhausted firefighters battle wildfires - CBS News

What the report says

CBS News reported that wildfires in France and Spain have forced more than 300,000 people to evacuate as firefighters, soldiers and aircraft worked in difficult conditions after months of heat and drought. In southwest France, authorities in the Gironde region, which includes Bordeaux, ordered five additional localities to evacuate overnight as shifting winds and dry terrain pushed a major blaze closer to populated areas.

According to CBS, French officials said more than 250,000 people had been ordered from the danger zone in that region alone, making it one of the largest evacuation operations there since World War II. The Gironde prefecture estimated by Sunday morning that about 162 square miles had burned, much of it pine forest and scrub made highly flammable by successive heat waves. Interior Minister Laurent Nunez wrote on X that conditions remained highly unfavorable and that the fire had become erratic before easing somewhat overnight.

In Spain, CBS reported that firefighters were dealing with major fires west of Madrid and a new front near Valencia. Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said difficult hours remained, though overnight efforts had helped bring some flames under control. Spanish officials said 116,000 people had been displaced this week, and local authorities reported one death in a fire in Manises, a Valencia suburb.

The fires are part of a broader southern European emergency. CBS, citing AFP, said hundreds of tourists and beachgoers were evacuated by sea from the Peschici area on Italy’s southern Adriatic coast. The report underscores how prolonged heat, drought and wind can rapidly overwhelm firefighting capacity and force large-scale evacuations across multiple countries.