The Madre Fire was reported shortly after noon Wednesday, July 2, along Highway 166 about 25 miles east of Santa Maria.

An explosion at a fireworks warehouse in Northern California rocked a quiet neighborhood and sparked a wildfire late Tuesday afternoon near the communities of Esparto and Madison, California, according to officials.

Video from the U.S. Forest Service Los Padres National Forest and CAL Fire shows the Madre Fire turning the sky orange across Southern California on Wednesday, July 2, 2025. The fire quickly spread, becoming the state's largest this year.

Authorities on Crete moved more than a thousand tourists and residents to safety as an out-of-control wildfire engulfed a forested area in the southwest of the island.

Firefighters are struggling to bring a major wildfire on Greece’s southern island of Crete under control, hampered by gale force winds that are whipping up the flames.

The blaze has been raging since Wednesday and fire crews say the conditions are creating new flare-ups, making containment efforts extremely difficult.

LONDON (Reuters) -Wildfires have killed two people in Spain and two others have died in France because of a heatwave that has gripped Europe and forced the closure of a nuclear reactor at a Swiss power plant.

The heat wave in Europe helped fuel a wildfire in Spain that killed two farmers, taking hundreds of firefighters to bring it under control.