Wildfire emergency continues across southern Europe as more campsites are evacuated and one is destroyed

The wildfire emergency affecting southern Europe continues to evolve, with new campsite evacuations in France, the reopening of a major campsite in Spain and the first confirmed destruction of a campsite by fire.

The situation remains particularly serious in south-western France, where authorities have ordered further precautionary evacuations as new fire fronts developed and another heatwave approached.

New evacuation in France

Following the evacuation of 45 campsites in Gironde and Landes, representing a combined accommodation capacity of around 40,000 people, authorities have now ordered the evacuation of around 4,000 additional campers and holidaymakers staying in campsites and holiday villages around Lacanau. At the time of writing, the authorities have not released the names of the affected properties.

Official information released by the Préfecture des Landes has also made it possible to identify four additional campsites evacuated during the Parentis-en-Born fire. These are Camping Calède, Camping Les Cottages, Camping Le Pison and Camping Le Pipiou, from which around 3,000 people were evacuated.

These campsites can now be added to the list of confirmed evacuations, which already included Camping La Grigne (Le Porge), Fontaine Vieille (Andernos-les-Bains), Mayotte Vacances and La Rive (Biscarrosse), and Lac Biscarrosse (Parentis-en-Born).

Meanwhile, French authorities have allowed thousands of residents and tourists to return to Biscarrosse after the situation improved locally, although emergency services remain on high alert because of persistent drought, strong winds and renewed high temperatures.

The situation in Spain and Italy

Spain has seen both encouraging and worrying developments. Following its precautionary evacuation, Capfun El Escorial reopened on Monday after approximately 4,600 guests had been evacuated during the emergency.

However, the wildfire near Pantano de San Juan, in the Madrid region, has resulted in the destruction of Camping La Ardilla Roja, making it the first campsite whose loss has been clearly documented by reliable sources during the current wildfire emergency.

In Italy, there have been no new confirmed campsite evacuations since the fires that affected Campomarino Lido in Molise and the Peschici–Vieste area on the Gargano peninsula. The most significant update concerns Peschici, where local authorities have confirmed that no campsites, holiday villages or other tourist accommodation facilities suffered damage despite the proximity of the fire. Tourists who had been moved away from beaches and coastal areas as a precaution were able to return once the emergency had eased.

A wider European alert

Although France and Spain remain the countries most severely affected from the perspective of the camping sector, the wildfire emergency now extends across much of southern Europe. Significant fires are also burning in Portugal and Greece, while more localised outbreaks have been reported in Germany.

So far, however, no reliable sources have confirmed large-scale campsite evacuations or damage to camping facilities in these countries comparable to those recorded in France and Spain. The scale of the crisis has prompted the activation of the European Union Civil Protection Mechanism, with firefighting aircraft, helicopters and ground crews from several Member States – including Croatia, Portugal, the Czech Republic and Slovakia – deployed to support the countries under the greatest pressure.