A fast-moving wildfire near Perpignan, in the Pyrénées-Orientales region of southern France, has forced more than 10,000 people to evacuate from over a dozen towns and villages in the foothills of the Pyrenees mountains, which form the natural border between France and Spain. The fire, centred near the village of Trévillach, has already burned at least 4,600 hectares (roughly 11,400 acres), and authorities warn that deteriorating conditions and strong winds could drive it further. "This morning conditions are deteriorating again. Today the battle resumes," Interior Minister Laurent Nunez said on French television. Residents described the speed of the blaze as alarming. "It came within 300 metres of the houses. We were shocked by how fast it spread — it was staggering, bordering on panic," said one local resident.

The fire is unfolding during an intense early-summer heat wave that has gripped much of southern Europe. Temperatures have already exceeded 40°C in parts of Portugal and Spain, and forecasters warn they could reach similar levels again in south-western France this week, with little rain expected in the coming days. The heat wave follows an even more extreme episode in June that set records across the continent. During that event, France recorded its hottest average country-wide day on 24 June, and excess deaths linked to the heat reached more than 2,000 in France, over 1,200 in Belgium, and around 480 in the Netherlands. Simultaneously, a separate wildfire in Castellón, in Spain's Valencia region, forced around 500 residents to evacuate after the blaze broke out near the town of Soneja on Sunday.

The European Commission has activated wildfire support mechanisms to assist France and Portugal as fires burn across multiple EU member states. Scientists attribute the increasing frequency and intensity of such events to climate change. Europe is the world's fastest-warming continent, heating at roughly twice the global average rate according to the EU's Copernicus climate monitoring service, making extreme heat and wildfires more likely and more severe each summer.

The crisis has even touched the Tour de France, the renowned annual cycling race currently passing through the affected area. The third stage of the race, a 195.9-kilometre route concluding in Les Angles in the Pyrénées-Orientales, is proceeding, but organisers have urged spectators and non-essential personnel to stay away from the final 40 kilometres of the route to keep roads clear for emergency vehicles. "An exceptional fire calls for exceptional measures for the Tour," said race director Christian Prudhomme. With heat forecast to persist into next week and no significant rainfall on the horizon, fire risk across the region is expected to remain high.