France Orders Largest Peacetime Evacuation Since WWII As Wildfires Rage

Thousands of firefighters are battling fast-moving wildfires spreading across Spain and France as extreme heat and strong winds forced more than 300,000 people to evacuate or shelter in place near Madrid, Valencia and Bordeaux.

Via @PCarterClimate

Socialist Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said fires burned about 20,000 hectares over the past 24 hours, with more than 105,000 people affected and two deaths reported so far. France evacuated more than 220,000 people in the Gironde region and mobilized 1,500 troops as roughly 30 fires spread near Bordeaux.

FRANCE: France has evacuated more than 220,000 people as the country’s largest wildfire continues to spread across the southwest, threatening Bordeaux. Officials said the blaze in Gironde has become so intense that it is generating its own winds. Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez…

— Open Source Intel (@Osint613) July 26, 2026

Europe is burning. France + Spain: 250,000+ people evacuated this weekend alone. France: 98,000 hectares destroyed, a new national record. Worst wildfire crisis in the country’s history.

Even the Tour de France had to cut its final stage. When wildfires cancel the Tour de… pic.twitter.com/DOXFbJj8bZ

— France Safety Travel (@francesafetytra) July 26, 2026

CNN reporter Max Saltman spoke with wine expert Nicolle Croft, who said the 2026 vintage across Bordeaux is safe for now, but there are mounting concerns.

Saltman continued:

As wildfires burn west of Bordeaux, one of France’s most famous wine-producing regions, concerned oenophiles have called wine expert Nicolle Croft to voice concern over the fate of 2026 vintage.

“A lot of people are contacting me from around the world hearing all these terrible stories, but actually the vineyards are not impacted at the moment,” Croft, a tour guide based in Bordeaux, told CNN. “But we’re all very upset because there are people losing homes.”

Croft said at this time of year, the grapes aren’t yet large enough to absorb wildfire smoke – a phenomenon known in winemaking as “smoke taint.”

“We won’t be harvesting until the beginning of September,” Croft said, “so there’s still time.”

Dr. Phil Crews, a winemaker and chemist at the University of California, Santa Cruz, explained that unripe grapes aren’t as vulnerable to smoke taint. Young grapes lack sugars that would otherwise bind with bitter-tasting phenols in wildfire smoke.

Fire Map

CNN noted, “Forecasts also indicate no rain in fire-ravaged areas, as officials in France mount the largest peacetime evacuation since WWII.”