Major wildfires, fuelled by strong winds and high temperatures, are raging across several regions of southern Europe, including Italy, Spain and France, where thousands of people were evacuated on Thursday from a popular tourist area.

Three firefighters have lost their lives in recent days, two in France and one in Italy.

With a month and a half left before the end of summer, 2026 already ranks as the second-worst year for land burned in the European Union in the past 20 years of recorded data, according to satellite figures from the EU’s European Forest Fire Information System (Effis), analysed by Agence France-Presse.

The European Commission’s civil protection service said this week that 1,254 fires have broken out across the bloc so far this year, burning 254,388 hectares and releasing an estimated 8.31 million tonnes of carbon dioxide.

The situation is most severe in France, while conditions also remain difficult in Spain and Italy.

In southern France, firefighters are battling two major wildfires. One, in the southwest, has burned 2,400 hectares, according to the latest estimate released on Thursday, in the northern part of the Bay of Arcachon in Gironde, a popular tourist area near Bordeaux.

No casualties or destroyed homes have been reported so far, but the situation remains “unfavourable” for firefighters. According to several sources cited by Agence France-Presse, the fire appears to have been caused by clearance work on a forest track.

According to the Gironde prefecture, at least 7,000 people were evacuated on Thursday as a precaution, bringing the total number of tourists and residents forced from their homes to 12,000.

The other fire, which broke out on Tuesday at noon in a field, is burning in the Var region in the southeast. It has consumed nearly 2,500 hectares and “remains stable,” according to the prefect of the Var department, Simon Babre, who on Thursday gave the “green light” for 400 people to return to their homes.

Temperatures above 40°C in Italy

A firefighter died on Wednesday while battling flames in southern Italy, where dozens of wildfires are raging across forested and scrubland areas of Sicily, Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi said.

Around 100 residents, along with 22 patients from a clinic in the centre of the island, where temperatures have exceeded 40°C in recent days, left the area on Wednesday, according to firefighters. “Six thousand personnel and 20 aircraft are on the scene,” said Renato Schifani, President of the Sicilian Region, on Wednesday, adding that nearly 50 fires, out of 344 recorded that day, continue to burn.

More than 160 fires have been recorded in the past 24 hours in the neighbouring region of Calabria.

Heatwave in Spain

In Spain, most residents who had evacuated their homes overnight were able to return home on Thursday, following the outbreak of a fire about 70 kilometres southwest of Madrid, Spanish emergency services announced.

Emergency services described the fire’s progress as “very positive,” even though the blaze had not been brought “under control” by early morning. Several roads remained closed on Thursday morning, the authorities said.

The most significant wildfire is on the other side of Madrid, in the province of Guadalajara, about 100 kilometres north of the capital, and has burned 32,000 hectares since last Thursday.