Spanish police charge tractor driver with causing wildfire amid heatwave fires

More than 100,000 people have been forced to abandon their homes as heatwave‑driven wildfires rage across Spain and France, officials said on Tuesday. The unprecedented evacuations follow a prolonged heatwave that pushed temperatures well above seasonal averages, igniting multiple forest and grassland fires in the Pyrenees, Catalonia, Occitanie and the French Riviera. Emergency services in both countries have coordinated large‑scale alerts, road closures and the deployment of firefighting aircraft, while local authorities have opened temporary shelters to accommodate displaced residents.

National civil protection agencies report that the scale of the displacement reflects the intensity of the blazes, which have burned thousands of hectares and threatened several municipalities. Relief efforts are being overseen by the European Union’s Civil Protection Mechanism, which has dispatched additional personnel and equipment to support national responders. As weather forecasts predict continued high temperatures, authorities remain on high alert, urging residents in at‑risk zones to follow evacuation orders and emphasizing that the situation will be monitored closely in the coming days.