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Huge wildfires are tearing through tourist hotspots in France and Spain with hundreds of people being evacuated as Europe braces for a 47C heatwave.
A blaze raged out of control across Spain's central Guadalajara province on Monday, burning for a fifth day and becoming the largest fire of the year.
It comes less than two weeks after Spain suffered one of its deadliest wildfires in recent history when a blaze in the southern province of Almeria killed 13 people and destroyed around 7,000 hectares.
Of the 13 people who died – including a 93-year-old British woman who perished from burn injuries in a hospital – seven were from the United Kingdom.
The fire started Thursday in a forest-covered mountainous area near the village of La Mierla in the Castilla-La Mancha region, about 100 kilometers (60 miles) from Madrid.
The authorities ordered the evacuation of four more villages late on Sunday, bringing to over 1,200 the number of people who have had to flee their homes.
The fire has devoured more than 26,000 hectares (65,000 acres) of land, an area roughly equivalent to the Scottish city of Edinburgh.
The head of the regional government, Emiliano Garcia-Page, said the authorities were making a 'truly titanic' effort to contain the blaze.
'We will defeat this fire, people should have no doubt about that,' he told reporters, saying the 'absolute priority' was to 'protect towns and population centres'.
The fire's 'complexity' was that it was raging through 'the emptied Spain, the Spain of abandoned territories'.
'These are immense areas dotted with micro-villages, tiny population centres. We have nearly 30 hamlets inside the fire zone, surrounded by flames,' Garcia-Page said.
An AFP journalist saw bright red flames and smoke rising from the ground late on Sunday night from a commercial plane flying over the affected region.
Firefighters on Sunday managed to curtail the spread of another wildfire near Zaragoza in northeastern Spain after burning around 15,000 hectares.
Scientists say human-caused climate change is increasing the length, intensity and frequency of heatwaves, drying out vegetation and raising the risk of destructive wildfires.
In 2025, more than 393,000 hectares were destroyed by 63 large wildfires, according to the European Forest Fire Information System - the most in Spain's recent history.
Footage shows enormous flames engulfing the sides of roads as firefighters struggle to battle the unruly blaze.
In France, the blaze began on the Mediterranean coast near Frejus on Sunday, threatening homes and forcing the evacuation of several hamlets as strong winds and drought conditions fuelled its rapid spread.
The fire scorched about 180 hectares (445 acres) by the evening.
'The fire spread extremely quickly in the context of this heatwave and extreme drought,' local prefect Simon Babre told BFM TV.
Television images showed large flames advancing behind hillside villas typical of the French Riviera, while thick black smoke billowed above pine and cypress trees.
Train services between the Mediterranean port of Toulon and Les Arcs were suspended because of the fire.
According to the Reuters Climate Monitor, the average high in the town of Les Arcs, where the fire was raging, was 38C, which is 11.4 degrees above the normal high for July 19 between 1961 and 1990.
It comes as European holiday destinations face record-breaking weather and a 47C heatwave in days, as millions of Britons prepare for their summer getaways.
The fire in the Var region of France was 'not yet contained' by midday Monday, and firefighters remained 'cautious,' said Eric Grohin, head of the Var fire brigade.
Temperatures in the region, which were the highest in France on Sunday, were scheduled to exceed 40C on Monday, according to Météo-France.
The blaze, which started in Taradeau, northwest of the Gulf of Saint-Tropez around 3.00pm, spread quickly before reaching the neighbouring town of Les Arcs-sur-Argens.
It burned 10 homes, damaged nine others and left one firefighter with minor injuries.
Around 615 firefighters backed by reinforcements from four neighbouring departments, five Canadair water bombers, four firefighting helicopters and two Dash aircraft were deployed against the blaze.
As the flames reached the edge of built-up areas, authorities evacuated 150 people from two affected towns, housing them in a community hall and a school.
The mayor of Les Arcs, Marcel Florent, described 'a fireball that hit the town' Sunday night, recalling how 'even the firefighters had to take shelter'.
The Var department has been placed under an orange heatwave warning.
The department, along with three others in southeastern France - Bouches-du-Rhône, Vaucluse, and Gard - was placed under a 'very high' risk of forest fires for Tuesday.
Twenty-eight departments will be placed under a 'high' risk.
The World Meteorological Organisation last month warned that the record temperatures that baked Western Europe for over a week in late June would worsen the risk of wildfires, given the outlook for sustained high temperatures, very low humidity and dry vegetation.
Spain's weather agency AEMET said the heatwave, the third of 2026, was expected to last at least until Thursday, bringing temperatures above 40C across much of the southeastern interior and pushing wildfire danger to extreme levels.
Some areas could reach 42C to 44C by Thursday as hot, dry air moves north from Africa.
The worst of the heat will be felt in Andalucia and the Region of Murcia, where temperatures could climb above 45C.
Some weather models are even predicting 46C to 47C in parts of Murcia on Thursday, with Spanish newspapers calling it ‘the mother of all heatwaves'.
The agency also warned of possible dry thunderstorms in mountainous areas of eastern Spain.
Spain is already the European Union's most fire-affected country this year.
According to the EU's Copernicus wildfire monitoring service, 104,423 hectares had burned across Spain in 2026, compared with 41,781 hectares in France.
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