Over 12,000 Evacuated in Southwest France as Gironde Wildfire Burns Past 2,400 Hectares

A wildfire tearing through the Gironde region of southwest France has forced the evacuation of around 12,000 people, according to the BBC, citing French media. The Irish Times, citing officials, put the overnight evacuation figure at more than 10,000 as of Thursday, with the fire having scorched roughly 2,000 to 2,400 hectares west of Bordeaux depending on the count.

The numbers are moving targets because the fire is still active. The Gironde regional government said more than 2,400 hectares, about 5,900 acres, have burned. The blaze sits near Arcachon Bay, a major tourist draw, which is why AFP reported that 10,000 of the evacuees are tourists, many pulled from campsites in the middle of their holidays.

This comes days after two firefighters died Tuesday when their truck was engulfed in flames while fighting the fire in Gironde, according to the Irish Times. French authorities have banned internal combustion and electric engines in heavily forested areas and closed a number of roads. The Gironde region remains under a red alert, with officials shutting some leisure sites in exposed forest areas Thursday afternoon and evening.

About 500 firefighters are on the ground trying to contain the blaze, the local prefecture told the Irish Times, describing conditions as "very rough" but confirming no injuries have been reported since Tuesday's deaths.

On the ground in Gironde

Yassmina de Freitas, 19, who lives in the coastal town of Le Porge, told the BBC she first noticed smoke and the smell of burning around lunchtime Wednesday. By afternoon, ash and half-burned tree bark were falling from a sky that had turned "very dark," she said, with smoke getting "thicker and thicker."

Her family was evacuated by law enforcement around 8 p.m. local time and taken to a gymnasium in a neighboring town. They had to leave behind two cats and four chickens they couldn't locate in time. De Freitas said she couldn't sleep, checking the fire's spread hour by hour. "I could see the number of hectares burned rising steadily," she said.

Further evacuations hit the Lège-Cap-Ferret peninsula, south of Le Porge, on Thursday morning. BBC South presenter Jo Kent, on holiday nearby at a campsite in Claouey, described anxious campers already leaving and others being told to stay ready to go. The main road south, normally jammed with traffic, was empty. The supermarket was "unnervingly quiet," she said.

Italy and Spain fighting their own fires

France isn't alone. In Sicily, firefighter Alessandro Marchi died battling a wildfire in San Cataldo. Italian Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi said Marchi died "in service to the community" and would "not be forgotten," according to a post on X. Sicily President Renato Schifani wished a "speedy recovery" to another firefighter injured in the same operation.

Salvo Cocina, head of Sicilian Civil Protection, said the island has seen more than 350 fires, including ten major ones triggering precautionary evacuations. Cocina said the fires have human causes and that firefighting itself "has become a social and public order problem," according to the BBC.

In Spain, the country's worst wildfire this year has burned an estimated 32,000 hectares, about 79,000 acres, in the Guadalajara region, per the Irish Times. That fire began to stabilize Tuesday after triggering evacuations in 34 municipalities and confinement orders in 14 others. Castilla-La Mancha's fire service has since authorized residents of five villages to return home, though other restrictions remain.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, visiting Guadalajara Wednesday, said Spain has already logged 22 major wildfires this year and roughly 100,000 hectares burned nationwide. Spain has already logged that amount in 2026, compared to an annual average of roughly 100,000 hectares over the past decade, Sánchez said, adding that more needs to be done to prevent fires.

Spain's weather agency says wildfire danger remains "very high or extreme" across most of the mainland and the Balearic Islands, and is expected to climb further as an ongoing heatwave combines with dry thunderstorms and Saharan dust.

What's driving it

The Irish Times, citing data it did not attribute to a single named source, reported that wildfires have burned more land in Europe this year already than the annual average of the past two decades. Europe has endured three back-to-back heatwaves in 2026 so far.

French authorities are blunt about the cause. Nine out of 10 wildfires start from human activity, accidental or not, officials told the Irish Times, urging people to avoid barbecues in heatwave-hit areas. That's a policy point, not a settled criminal finding in this case. No arrests or specific cause has been announced for the Gironde fire as of Thursday.

In the Var region of southeast France, evacuated residents were told Thursday morning they could return home to check for property damage, though the BBC noted some restrictions were still being sorted out as the situation developed.

The Gironde fire is not yet contained. With 500 firefighters committed and a red alert still in effect, the immediate question is whether the fire's spread slows before more of the Arcachon Bay tourist area has to be cleared out.