Wildfires tearing through parched landscapes in France and Spain have triggered mass evacuations on an extraordinary scale, pushing more than 200,000 people from their homes as authorities scramble to protect towns, transport links and lives.
In France, Interior Minister Laurent Nunez said 167,000 people had been evacuated because of blazes near Bordeaux in the southwest. Spain’s interior ministry, meanwhile, put its evacuation total at 45,000 as fires burned across areas west of Madrid.
French President Emmanuel Macron, after requesting assistance from the European Union, asked the army to mobilise in response to what officials described as the worst wildfire the country has ever seen.
Near Bordeaux, authorities ordered residents in nearby towns to leave “as a precaution” as the inferno advanced. The traffic information website Bison Fute urged motorists to steer clear of roads in the area to keep routes open for emergency vehicles.
Smoke rises from a wildfire near Lege-Cap-Ferret, southwestern France, yesterday
On the up-market Cap Ferret peninsula south of Bordeaux, around 44,000 people fled with the only access road threatened by flames. Boats carried hundreds away from the fires while others drove off the peninsula, known for its millionaire residences. More than 50 houses there have been destroyed.
With strong winds fanning flames and drought conditions leaving forests tinder-dry, both Madrid and Paris turned to the EU for help.
Mr Nunez said France had never previously faced fires on this scale and vowed 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”.
Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said crews battling the fires west of Madrid were focused on “save lives”, warning that the hours ahead would be “complex” with high winds expected.
Thick grey smoke blotted out the sky to the west of the capital, and the smell of burning drifted into central Madrid, irritating residents’ throats and prompting many to keep windows shut.
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“Our priority, our thinking, our aim is for your lives, to save your lives and protect inhabited areas,” Mr Sanchez told reporters in the village of Cenicientos in the fire zone.
“We are going to have some complex hours ahead because although the temperatures have gone down, we do not know exactly how the wind will develop, how strong it will be.”
In France, Mr Sanchez’s counterpart Sebastien Lecornu convened a late-night crisis meeting of key ministers and said 1,000 military personnel would be deployed to confront fires that have already ravaged 22,000 hectares.
He added on X that “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,” referring to the department where Bordeaux is located.
Authorities said about 40 of the 1,000 firefighters battling the Cap Ferret blaze have been injured. Three firefighters have died in wildfires in France and Italy this week.
Officials in Spain said two of the three major wildfires west of Madrid have merged into one, heightening the threat to a suburban town.
Aerial footage shows homes burning as wildfire engulfs area west of Madrid
Some European regions have endured at least two heatwaves since May, and drought blamed on human-fuelled climate change has amplified wildfire risks this year, the World Weather Attribution group said in a study published this week.
In southwestern France, emergency shelters were opened in schools and gymnasiums for tourists and residents, many left uncertain about what they might find when they are able to return.
EU help
Reinforcements have been dispatched from across France and, after 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 further evacuations.
Two fires west of Madrid had merged and were moving toward the town of Navas del Rey, about 50km from the capital.
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Officials said the newly formed blaze was also close to joining with another wildfire in the neighbouring Castilla y Leon region.
“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 struck by a string of wildfires in recent weeks.
The largest active blaze was still burning in Guadalajara province, around 100km north of Madrid, where it has scorched about 32,000 hectares.
Italy has also been fighting 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.
