Massive wildfires are threatening the historic city of Bordeaux in southwest France, prompting President Emmanuel Macron to call a crisis meeting of the French cabinet on Monday, July 27th, 2026. The meeting aims to coordinate efforts to contain the fires as firefighters battle the blaze through the night.
The provincial authority of Gironde, the wine-growing region that includes Bordeaux, reported that the situation remains “broadly stable.” However, Bordeaux Mayor Thomas Cazenave warned on Sunday that the fire “is still at the gates of the metropolitan area.” Jerome Steffe, mayor of Cestas, a suburb just outside Bordeaux, described the blaze as “a fire of a size never seen before.”
The urgency of the crisis meeting is heightened by forecasts predicting another heatwave to hit France later in the week, which could exacerbate the wildfire situation. The wildfires have already forced 250,000 people from their homes across France.
Rocio Dominguez, a 35-year-old resident who fled her house in Chapineria, west of Madrid, described the scene as apocalyptic: “It looked like the apocalypse. You couldn’t see anything.”
The wildfires are part of a broader pattern of extreme heat and fires affecting regions including North Africa.
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