France battles wildfire 4 times the size of Paris as soaring heat threatens new surge

LEGE-CAP FERRET, France (AP) — Firefighters in southwest France battled an uncontained wildfire four times the size of Paris on Wednesday as temperatures were forecast to reach 40 C (104 F), threatening to turn a calm night into only a brief reprieve.

Authorities in the Gironde region said the blaze had not spread overnight, but rising heat and afternoon winds could revive smoldering hot spots, carry embers across firebreaks and open new fronts beyond crews’ reach.

At the command center in Lège, firefighters bent over maps spread across a car hood, tracking three danger zones: northern Cap-Ferret; the wooded corridor around Marcheprime, Cestas and Saint-Jean-d’Illac; and a military site near Martignas, where a major outbreak forced a large deployment.

More than 2,200 firefighters and over 20 aircraft remained mobilized, backed by crews from across France and European partners.

“We strike quickly and strike hard at any new smoke emissions,” Gironde fire commander Matthieu Jomain said.

The advance of major fires in the Landes and Var regions have been halted. That left Gironde as France’s biggest remaining wildfire battle, Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez said.

The Gironde fire forced 220,000 people to flee at the peak of the crisis. Tens of thousands have since been allowed home, but authorities warned that the danger had not passed.

Extreme heat strips moisture from vegetation and drives down humidity, turning grasses, brush and forest litter into faster-burning fuel.

Météo-France said Wednesday would be the hottest and driest day of the week, with elevated wildfire danger across every region of France. Drought now covers mainland France and Corsica, with soils nearing the record dryness reached in August 2022.

Smoke from the Gironde and Landes fires also pushed particulate pollution higher across both departments, regional air-quality monitors said.

Gironde authorities ordered 4,000 more people out of tourist sites along the Atlantic coast on Tuesday, widening what may be France’s largest peacetime evacuation.

“The situation remains complicated. That’s clear. We’re not out of the woods,” said Gironde prefect Sophie Brocas, who also authorized 60,000 evacuees to return to three Bordeaux suburbs untouched by fire.

The opposing movements — thousands ordered out of coastal resorts as others returned with mobile phones on and emergency bags packed — captured how precarious the situation remains.

The disruption was spreading beyond the burn zone into Bordeaux’s peak tourism season.

Edouard le Grix de la Salle, who runs Château du Grand Verdus with his brother, said official appeals to avoid the region threatened its wine-tourism trade. “How did they not think about protecting that sector?” he told The Associated Press.

At the height of the crisis, roughly 330,000 people were driven from homes and vacation sites across France and Spain.

Tens of thousands of people began returning home in central Spain after firefighters made progress around Madrid and Ávila. Evacuation orders were lifted for about 20,000 people in the Madrid region, while stay-at-home restrictions ended for another 14,000.

But 10,000 people remain under evacuation orders in Castellón, where a fire was still out of control as Spain braced for its fourth heat wave of the summer.

At one point the Gironde blaze created a black thundercloud, electrified and lit from within, that generated lightning, violent winds and new fires beyond the original front. The pyrocumulonimbus was the first recorded in France.

More than 1,160 square kilometers (448 square miles) have burned across France this year, according to the Interior Ministry.

Europe is the world’s fastest-warming continent, warming at more than twice the global average, according to the European Union’s Copernicus climate service. Western Europe recorded its hottest June on record, with extreme heat and widespread dryness contributing to the spread and intensification of fires in France and Spain, Copernicus said.

Adamson reported from Paris. Suman Naishadham in Madrid and John Leicester and Masha Macpherson in Paris contributed.

A fire burns in a forest near Claouey, during wildfires in southwestern France, Wednesday, July 29, 2026. (AP Photo/Emma Da Silva)

A car burned by a wildfire sits in Piedralaves, Ávila province, Spain, as the fire continues to spread, Tuesday, July 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)

Firefighters use controlled burning to halt a wildfire that continues to spread near Cebreros, Ávila province, Spain, Tuesday, July 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)

Firefighters battle a blaze outside Lanton, during wildfires in southwestern France, Tuesday, July 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Emma Da Silva)

A De Havilland Canada Dash 8-400 drops fire retardant over a forest near Saint-Jean-d'Illac, during wildfires in southwestern France, Tuesday, July 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Emma Da Silva)

Firefighters battle a blaze outside Lanton, during wildfires in southwestern France, Tuesday, July 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Emma Da Silva)

INNSBRUCK, Austria (AP) — Wearing protective gear to shield from the extreme heat of molten bronze, workers at one of the last bell foundries in Europe are casting bells weighing several tons.

One after another, the artisans carefully pour the molten metal into special-shaped molds held together with steel bands to create 12 bells for churches in Italy, Germany and Romania.

Founded in 1599, the Grassmayr Bell Foundry, in Innsbruck, western Austria, has survived wars, famines, epidemics and economic challenges.

These days, the family business is run by brothers Johannes and Peter Grassmayr. During the Renaissance in the late Middle Ages there were hundreds of bell makers in Europe, while today only a handful remain across the continent.

The Grassmayrs’ secret to success: tenacity combined with innovation such as 3D-printing, scanning, lasers and computer simulation apps.

“Certain things are just like they were 400 years ago. But we innovated a lot. Especially within the last 20 years, we've changed a lot,” Johannes Grassmayr told The Associated Press.

The production cycle for making a bell takes three to four months. In the past cleaning a freshly cast bell and polishing it made up 30% of total production time. Nowadays, with the help of modern tools, that process takes only a tenth of the time.

Grassmayr keeps some of its most innovative production steps a secret, such as a special chamber in which the bells are cleaned with a high-pressure sandblaster, not to mention the special apps used to calculate the sound of each particular bells.

Even with modern technology, the process of designing and forming the molds for a large bell can take up to six months.

“The important thing is that you have calculate, form and then cast the bell as a musical instrument.” Johannes said, adding that the biggest difficulty during the creation of the bell is the possibility that the pressure of the molten metal destroys the mold.

When the workers cast a large bell weighing several tons, the liquid bronze creates up to 125 metric tons (137 tons) of pressure inside the molds, he said. To ensure the integrity of the mold, only high-quality clay is used, which is then encased in steel sleeves designed to withstand extreme pressures.

But it's not only the difficulty of the production, that has Grassmayr worried. The modern bell-making industry is under pressure as fewer churches are being built, which means the demand for bells is changing. Rising energy costs due to the war in Ukraine are not helping, and labor costs have risen 30% since the pandemic in 2020.

But the main cost factor of a newly cast bell is still the price of materials. The best bells require high-quality bronze, which is 80 parts copper to 20 parts tin. A few years ago the price of bronze was 8 euros ($9.23) per kilogram compared with 23 euros ($26.17) today, Johannes said.

“That’s why I can’t even say how much a bell is going to cost in a year. I just hope the metal price is going to come down again,” he added.

To keep the business going, the family has increasingly turned to restoring old bells, often with the help of modern technologies. Hundreds of defective bells from 12 European countries have been restored at the Grassmayr bell foundry, according to the company.

Bells made by Grassmayr can be found in over 100 countries, ranging from Japan to the United States.

One of the largest the brothers have cast was for Romania's National Cathedral in Bucharest. Cast in 2016, it is 3.3 meters (10.8 feet) tall and weighs more than 25 metric tons (27.5 tons). Another creation, weighing 15 metric tons (16.5 tons), hangs in a church on Mount Tabor in Israel.

Johannes showed the AP several recently cast bells that were being left to cool down for a week before being removed from their molds. He pointed to the precise negative imprint still visible in the clay form.

“This bell is for the church in Zethau, in Germany,” he said. “I’m very happy with the casting. I’m especially happy that the innovations of the past decades helped a lot to make the bells ever more beautiful and better.”

An employee inspects a bell at the 400-year-old family-owned bell foundry Grassmayr in Innsbruck, Austria, Friday, July 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Matthias Schrader)

An employee works on the inside of a bell at the 400-year-old family-owned bell foundry Grassmayr in Innsbruck, Austria, Friday, July 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Matthias Schrader)

An employee inspects a bell at the 400-year-old family-owned bell foundry Grassmayr in Innsbruck, Austria, Friday, July 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Matthias Schrader)

Mathias Rentzsch secures a bracket on a bell at the 400-year-old family-owned bell foundry Grassmayr in Innsbruck, Austria, Friday, July 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Matthias Schrader)

Employees use a melting furnace at the 400-year-old family-owned bell foundry Grassmayr in Innsbruck, Austria, Friday, July 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Matthias Schrader)

An employee works on the inside of a bell at the 400-year-old family-owned bell foundry Grassmayr in Innsbruck, Austria, Friday, July 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Matthias Schrader)

Workers cast bronze bells at the 400-year-old, family-owned Grassmayr bell foundry in Innsbruck, Austria, Friday, July 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Matthias Schrader)