More than 200,000 people flee or lock down as wildfires sweep France and Spain

‘Highly unpredictable’ blaze forces evacuation of Cap Ferret on French coast and Spain declares national emergency

People pose on the beach in Andernos-Les Bains during a fire in Lege Cap-Ferret forest, southwestern France, on July 23, 2026, as part of the nearby area has been evacuated. Picture: Olivier MORIN / AFP via Getty Images

More than 200,000 people have fled or been ordered to lock down as huge wildfires swept Spain and France on Friday, prompting Madrid to declare a national emergency and the French authorities to order the total evacuation, by land and sea, of one of the country’s best-known holiday spots.

Authorities in south-west France ordered the Cap Ferret peninsula on the Atlantic coast to be evacuated “village by village” in the face of an “intense, highly unpredictable” wildfire that has burned through more than 19,000 hectares of forest.