France, July 25 -- Fire-generated whirlwinds fuelled blazes near Bordeaux, while Spain battled expanding infernos threatening areas near Madrid.

French authorities said Sunday that 220,000 people have now been evacuated from the main forest fire raging in the southwest of the country that now threatens the city of Bordeaux.

The latest evacuations have been in villages around Bordeaux. The fires are expanding in what Bordeaux authorities call a "tongue of fire," approaching the main A63 highway from Bordeaux to the Spanish border. Wildfires in Gironde, a "tongue of fire" going towards the city of Bordeaux (r). 26 July 2026.

Tens of thousands more people have been evacuated from other wildfires in France and central Spain, thousands of t...