On July 25, 2026, organisers and police shortened the final stage of the Tour de France from 133 km to 89 km. The reason was to free up security forces to help fight wildfires across France BBC. The French government called the wildfire situation "totally unprecedented," with about 30 fires burning across the country. President Emmanuel Macron planned to hold an emergency meeting with ministers BBC.

France sent a military plane to help with the firefighting effort France 24. More than 250,000 people have been evacuated across France and Spain as of July 25, 2026, according to authorities in both countries CNN, France 24, The Guardian. The wildfires and evacuations are concentrated in southwestern France and central Spain CNN, France 24.

In the Gironde area near Bordeaux, local authorities activated the FR-Alert system on July 24, 2026. FR-Alert is France's emergency phone-notification system that warns people in a specific area about danger and tells them what to do Gironde Prefecture. The fire in Gironde started on July 22, 2026, in the town of Saumos and spread toward Le Porge and then toward Lège-Cap-Ferret Gironde Prefecture. Authorities ordered preventive evacuations for the towns of Le Porge, Saumos, Le Temple, and Lège-Cap-Ferret, affecting nearly 20,000 people Gironde Prefecture. Residents in Saint-Aubin-de-Médoc, near Bordeaux, were also evacuating because of approaching fires BBC. During the Gironde wildfires, 42 firefighters were injured and received medical care. Nine of them were evacuated for urgent treatment Gironde Prefecture.

In Spain, the Ministry of the Interior moved the start of the 2026 summer wildfire campaign forward to June 1 Protección Civil. By that date, Spain had already recorded 8,189 wildfires that had burned a total of 354,793 hectares, an area larger than the country of Luxembourg Protección Civil. Protección Civil, Spain's civil protection agency, published a wildfire monitoring report on June 7, 2026, tracking large fires exceeding 500 hectares using data from the European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS) Protección Civil. Earlier Spanish wildfires tracked by authorities included incidents in Luena, Cantabria on February 27, 2026; in Totana, Region of Murcia on March 29, 2026; and in Ponteareas, Pontevedra, Galicia on April 6, 2026 Protección Civil. Protección Civil published a further monitoring report on July 12, 2026, and its annual wildfire report for 2025 on March 17, 2026 Protección Civil.

The broader picture here is one of growing cross-border emergency management. Spain's decision to move its summer wildfire campaign start to June 1 suggests that authorities recognise the wildfire season is getting longer and more intense. The fire in Gironde, which spread from Saumos all the way to the Atlantic coast, shows the same pattern. The scale of the resource shift in France is also worth noting. Pulling security forces from the Tour de France to active fire lines is a step where even a major national event takes a back seat to public safety.

On the coordination front, the FR-Alert system's use in Gironde serves as a real-world test of how well population-warning tools work under extreme pressure. The 42 firefighters injured, with 9 needing evacuation, shows the intensity frontline responders face in forested terrain. Both France and Spain are dealing with heavy logistical demands as the fires have already displaced more than 250,000 people combined. What happens next will depend on wind conditions, whether both countries can sustain their firefighting resources, and whether the emergency ministerial meeting in Paris leads to further domestic or EU-level support.