More than 160,000 flee out-of-control wildfires in France, Spain

France and Spain evacuated more than 160,000 people as unprecedented forest fires ravaged areas on Saturday near Madrid and Bordeaux, a French city flanked by tourist havens and world-renowned vineyards.

French President Emmanuel Macron asked the army on Friday to mobilise to help contain the worst wildfire the country has ever seen after seeking European Union help, as a local official warned the blaze was heading towards Bordeaux.

Authorities ordered the evacuation of towns near Bordeaux “as a precaution” against the approaching inferno, while traffic information website Bison Fute urged drivers to avoid roads in the area to free up access for emergency services.

Around 44,000 people fled the up-market Cap Ferret peninsula south of Bordeaux, with the only road threatened by flames.

Boats moved hundreds of people away from the fires, while others drove off the peninsula, known for its millionaire residences. More than 50 houses there have been destroyed.

At least 141,000 people have been evacuated in southwestern France and 25,000 in the Madrid region, among them more than 1,200 elderly and disabled people, French and Spanish officials said.

Madrid and Paris have called in EU help as flames whipped up by strong winds and boosted by drought tore through tinder-dry forests.

French Interior Minister Laurent Nunez said France had never before seen such fires on this scale and pledged to “do everything” to protect Bordeaux.

 Madrid fire ‘at its peak’

Carlos Novillo, the Madrid regional government’s emergency management chief, said the wildfire near the capital was “at its peak and is currently beyond the capacity of firefighters to contain”.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez will go to the zone early Saturday to visit the emergency coordination centre there.

His French counterpart Sebastien Lecornu called a crisis meeting of key ministers late Friday and said a total of 1,000 military personnel will be deployed to confront the flames, which have already ravaged 22,000 hectares (54,000 acres).

In addition, “1.5 million FFP2 masks will be delivered as of tonight to Gironde in order to protect the personnel involved and the populations exposed to smoke that is harmful to health,” he said on X, referring to the department where Bordeaux is located.

About 40 of the 1,000 firefighters battling the Cap Ferret blaze have been injured, authorities said. Three firefighters have died in wildfires in France and Italy this week.

Two of the three major wildfires west of Madrid have merged into one, threatening a suburban town, said officials.

Some European regions have suffered at least two heatwaves since May. And drought blamed on human-fuelled climate change has heightened the threat from wildfires this year, the World Weather Attribution group said in a study published this week.

Emergency shelters were set up in schools and gymnasiums in southwestern France for tourists and residents left wondering what they would return to.

In the village of Andernos, Maria Lalanne, a 90-year-old from Lege Cap Ferret, sat on a camp bed in a gym without her glasses or hearing aid, which she had left behind.

“I have heart disease, high blood pressure and problems with my eyes,” she said. “I don’t know how long all this will last. I don’t know how my house is, whether it has burnt.”

 EU help

Firefighting reinforcements have been sent from across France and, following appeals for assistance, the European Commission said it was sending four water-bombing planes to Spain and three to France.

The fires burning around Madrid are the worst in the region’s history, regional president Isabel Diaz Ayuso said as she announced more evacuations.

Two fires west of Madrid had merged and were heading for the town of Navas del Rey, around 50 kilometres (30 miles) from the capital.

The new blaze was close to combining with another wildfire in neighbouring Castilla y Leon region, officials said.

“The smoke was incredibly thick,” Jose Cobos, who fled his home southwest of Madrid with his wife and three dogs, told Antena 3 television. “You couldn’t breathe.”

Spain has been hit by a series of wildfires in recent weeks.

The largest active fire was still burning in Guadalajara province, around 100 km north of Madrid, where it has scorched about 32,000 hectares.

The French fires at Cap Ferret and around the town of Biscarrosse have already burned more than 13,500 hectares while another 6,000 hectares has been lost in the Madrid region.

Italy has also been battling wildfires this week with dozens burning on the island of Sicily in recent days. One of the firefighter victims was killed in Sicily. Two others died tackling a fire near Bordeaux airport.