Firefighters tackle remaining hot spots of major wildfire in southwestern France

By Friday, authorities said the fire was largely under control but warned that crews still faced a stubborn array of hot spots, particularly in peaty soil that can smoulder for days. Residents from evacuated villages were being allowed to return in stages, though officials cautioned that the risk of flare-ups remained high as the region entered another hot, dry weekend.

Climate link drawn by scientists

Aurélien Costes, a scientist with San José State University, told NPR that this year's intense fires in France resemble similar blazes in California and are likely to become more frequent as temperatures rise. He said the pattern of long summer droughts, heat waves and strong winds had created conditions more typical of the Mediterranean basin just a decade or two ago.

On Friday, scientists from World Weather Attribution said climate change contributed to recent fires in France and Spain, making fire-prone conditions at least twice as likely in southwestern France and at least 20 times as likely in central Spain. The group's rapid attribution studies use observed weather data and climate models to compare current events with a counterfactual world without warming.

The findings placed the southwestern French fire in the same category as a series of heat-driven blazes that have swept the Iberian Peninsula this summer. In Spain, emergency services have battled outbreaks in several regions, including central provinces where the World Weather Attribution analysis identified the strongest climate signal.

Broader picture across Europe

French authorities have pointed to a combination of dry lightning strikes and an unusually dry spring as the immediate trigger for the Gironde fire. Climate scientists, however, stress that such triggers sit on top of a longer-term shift: hotter summers, lower soil moisture and longer fire seasons that now extend well into what used to be the mild months of September and October.

Beyond France and Spain, the broader European picture has also deteriorated. Countries along the Danube, parts of Germany and areas of England have all recorded significant fire activity in recent weeks, and the European Union's satellite monitoring service has logged above-average burnt area across the continent.

What comes next

In Gironde, local officials thanked the roughly 2,000 firefighters who rotated through the front lines, many of them working 24-hour shifts in difficult terrain. European Union member states also sent firefighting planes and ground crews through the EU's civil protection mechanism, a routine but symbolically important gesture as wildfires increasingly cross borders.

Looking ahead, meteorologists forecast another heat wave for southern France in the coming week, raising fears that any remaining hot spots could reignite. Authorities said they would keep a heavy firefighting presence in the forest until the autumn rains arrive.

Costes and other researchers argue that adaptation alone will not be enough. They are calling for faster reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, expanded prescribed burning to reduce forest fuel loads, and stricter rules on new construction in fire-prone landscapes, particularly around the edges of cities like Bordeaux, where housing has pushed deeper into pine forest in recent decades.