Europe’s burning
The fires threatening central Spain and southwestern France over the past two weeks may be small by American standards. In Europe, though, they are tremendous. Some are the largest in their countries’ modern histories, raging in places not accustomed to fires of this scale: on the outskirts of Madrid, for instance, or near the ancient vineyards of Bordeaux.
Firefighters have been struggling to contain the fires before another heat wave descends on the region today, with temperatures soaring to 104 degrees Fahrenheit. Last month was the hottest June on record in Western Europe, and climate experts say the continent can expect even higher temperatures in the future. The heat dries vegetation, making it more susceptible to fire. (It also exhausts firefighters.)
And more destruction may lie ahead. Last year had a record-breaking fire season across Europe, my colleagues report, with more than 2.5 million acres burned, about 60 percent of them in August. The fires of the last two weeks have put 2026 ahead of last year at the same time.
These charts tell the terrible story:
| Source: European Forest Fire Information System, as of July 28, 2026. The New York Times |
‘A wake-up call’
The fires have been particularly hard on Madrid, which in recent years has become a booming European capital. Residents can’t recall a time when such a large fire advanced so close to the city, reports Jason Horowitz, our bureau chief there:
In a country led by a government that has defined itself by the seriousness with which it takes climate change, the flames have come unsettlingly close to the capital. The fires around Madrid have brought to tears the region’s president, Isabel Díaz Ayuso. Experts say they are a harbinger for the damage to come on the world’s fastest warming continent.
“These are difficult hours,” Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said Monday afternoon during a news conference in Castellón, on Spain’s eastern coast, where a new fire raged and forced thousands of new evacuations.
“This is a wake-up call,” one Madrileño told Jason. Another said that even before the fires, weeks of record-breaking heat had exhausted her. “It just keeps spreading,” she said, looking at a sunset ruined by smoke. “Just don’t let it reach here.”
‘Be prepared’
| In southwestern France. Philippe Lopez/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images |
The fires scare people in Bordeaux as well, particularly in the region’s storied vineyards, home to world-famous appellations like Lafite Rothschild, Pomerol and St.-Émilion. Mark Landler, our Paris bureau chief, visited one of them this week, a chateau built around a castle that dates to 1365.
“For the wine industry, it’s one thing on top of the other,” a director at the chateau told him. There’s been drought, heat waves, weak sales because drinking habits are changing, and President Trump’s tariffs on French wine. “It doesn’t make our lives very easy,” he continued. “In the face of that risk, we need to be prepared.”
And so, Mark reports, the chateau is readying itself for the once inconceivable possibility that fire could reach its grounds and buildings, with plans to evacuate the chickens, goats, horses and llamas that live there.
“The animals are living, breathing beings, unlike the vines,” the director said. “The vines are just material.”
See maps and charts showing the scale of these fires.
| Source: VIIRS satellite fire detection data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration via NASA. The New York Times |