Firefighters in southwestern France held a vast blaze inside established lines on Saturday, allowing some 198,000 residents to go home after what officials described as the country’s largest peacetime operation of its kind. The France wildfire evacuation concluded in Gironde even as fresh outbreaks in southern France and Greece forced new departures.
Authorities said the contrasting developments highlighted how quickly progress can shift after days of intense firefighting. In the Mediterranean Var department, a fire that had appeared to stop advancing surged across 10 square kilometers in six hours on Friday, moving, the prefecture said, faster than a horse at full gallop. Elsewhere, boat evacuations were carried out at a Greek seaside resort.
At their peak, concurrent fires in France and Spain uprooted about 330,000 people from homes and holiday sites, straining ground crews, aircraft and emergency services across multiple fronts. The European Union’s Copernicus climate service notes Europe is warming more than twice as fast as the global average since the 1980s, and hotter, drier conditions enable fires to spread faster and burn more intensely.
Cap Ferret remains evacuated after France wildfire evacuation
The Gironde fire has burned 420 square kilometers of pine forest west of Bordeaux, roughly four times the area of Paris. Crews reported Saturday the blaze remained contained within its existing perimeter, meaning flames had not crossed control lines. It has not been declared fixed, and active sectors along with buried hot spots continue to pose risks.
Several communities remain largely empty. Authorities kept much of the Cap Ferret peninsula closed because a nearby hot spot could re-ignite, potentially cutting limited road access and trapping residents and visitors. “Today, the fire is still not fixed. It is contained,” Lt. Col. Eric Pitault told reporters.
Firefighters conducted tactical burns overnight to strip vegetation ahead of active fronts and deprive the main fire of fuel. Crews still faced approximately 240 kilometers of fire edges where heat can linger underground and flare again. The toll extends to wildlife. Allain Bougrain-Dubourg, who leads France’s League for the Protection of Birds, told RMC radio that affected animals already number in the millions.
Fire roars back in southern France
In the Var, a blaze deemed fixed earlier in the week roared back within hours Friday. Var Prefect Simon Babre said the fire “defies understanding.” The resurgence erased apparent gains, with an additional 1,250 hectares burned in a matter of hours.
Defensive lines shielding vulnerable communities held overnight and no further ground was lost, Babre told French media Saturday. The fire remained active, however. About 2,500 people had yet to return home, and 1,300 firefighters were mobilized.
Twenty French departments were under an orange heat warning Saturday, mainly in the east and southeast. Forecasts called for highs of 35 to 39 C around the Mediterranean, and eight departments faced a high forest-fire risk.
Gale-force winds batter Greek resort
In Greece, hundreds of firefighters worked Saturday to defend Porto Germeno on the Gulf of Corinth as gale-force winds drove flames through the coastal zone between Athens and Thebes. The fire began Friday near Agios Vasileios. About 300 people were evacuated by sea, and authorities issued several additional evacuation orders on Saturday.
The damage around Porto Germeno was “inconceivable,” wrote Theodore Giannaros, a wildfire meteorologist at the National Observatory of Athens, on Facebook. He estimated 40 to 50 square kilometers had been affected, though authorities had not released an official burned-area figure.
Reinforcements brought the Greek deployment to 420 firefighters, including 20 specialized forest-fire teams, supported by 19 aircraft and 11 helicopters. Local officials said homes were destroyed, but a full tally was not immediately available. Powerful winds continued to fan flames and complicate air operations. Greece’s fire service said crews battled 73 blazes on Friday.
The Athens region and parts of nearby Evia were placed under the highest wildfire alert Saturday, with winds expected to reach 88 kph. Such conditions can halt aerial water drops and rapidly intensify fire behavior.
France wildfire evacuation highlights shifting risks
Officials said the stabilized situation in Gironde could change if winds, heat and buried hot spots align. The France wildfire evacuation allowed most residents to return, but closures at Cap Ferret and renewed threats in the Var and Greece underscored the fragile gains against fast-moving fires amid extreme weather.
Reporting contributed from Paris and Athens. For coverage of how extreme events ripple through markets, see our report on the Situational Awareness fund.