France wildfires 2026: Macron calls crisis meeting as flames slow
France’s biggest blaze showed signs of slowing, but officials warned rising heat could make the firefight harder from Tuesday.
By Sal Moretti · Money Reporter
3 min read
France wildfires 2026 turned into a national crisis Monday, with President Emmanuel Macron set to lead a government meeting after blazes drove more than 250,000 people from their homes, CBS News reported.
The fiercest fire was burning in Gironde, the southwest region that includes Bordeaux’s wine country. Local authorities said conditions overnight were “globally stable,” offering the first sign that the largest blaze might be losing momentum after days of advancing toward Bordeaux.
The fire in Gironde has burned an area four times the size of Paris, according to the regional prefecture. Officials did not announce new evacuations, but they moved to keep more people out as France heads toward its busy August travel period.
Gironde authorities banned holiday camps for children and for people with disabilities, CBS News reported. Firefighters on the ground were being backed by aircraft dropping water and retardant as crews tried to gain ground before hotter weather forecast from Tuesday.
In the neighboring Landes region, officials reported some rain overnight and said conditions were favorable for firefighting. The prefecture also warned that the situation could still shift.
What is a pyrocumulonimbus cloud?
A pyrocumulonimbus is a towering cloud created by intense fire heat. France’s national firefighters federation said the fire-generated cloud can produce its own winds, lightning and, in some cases, tornadoes that may start additional fires, AFP reported.
The federation told AFP that the phenomenon had not previously been seen in France. Federation spokesman Eric Brocardi described the fight in stark terms, saying, “It’s a David-versus-Goliath scenario. ... At some point, we’ll find a weak spot and strike there.”
Macron scheduled the crisis meeting for Monday morning. In a post on X over the weekend, he promised support for communities hit by the fires, writing: “We will rebuild, we will repair and we will be present for as long as necessary.”
The fire emergency was not limited to France. In Spain, wildfires burned around Madrid and in the Valencia region, with authorities evacuating 76,000 people and ordering 30,000 others to remain inside their homes, CBS News reported.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez linked the scale and ferocity of the fires to climate change, saying, “What we are experiencing is not a series of isolated incidents. It is the consequence of a climate emergency that is making wildfires even more violent, heat waves more frequent.”
The fires in both countries have been fed by early, intense heat waves that dried forests and scrubland, CBS News reported. Officials and residents were left watching shifting winds, smoke and heat forecasts as crews worked to contain the flames.
Evacuees in Spain were waiting to learn what remained of their homes. Rocío Domínguez, who left Chapinería west of Madrid with her dog, Simba, said, “It looked like the apocalypse. You couldn’t see anything. Everything was covered in ash.”
Domínguez said residents did not know what they would find on return: “if we’ll have half the house burned down or we’ll have it intact or we won’t have a house.” She added, “All the clothes, all the memories, everything.”
This story draws on original reporting from CBS News.