Wildfires Force 166,000 to Flee Across France and Spain
More than 166,000 people have been evacuated across France and Spain as wildfires rage near Bordeaux and Madrid, with Spain declaring a national emergency and President Macron ordering the army to help contain what officials called the worst fire France has known. Around 141,000 have fled in south-western France and some 25,000 in the Madrid region, where merged blazes near Madrid and Ávila displaced tens of thousands.
Some 44,000 people abandoned the Cap Ferret peninsula south of Bordeaux, where a blaze burning since Wednesday has consumed 125 square kilometres and the sole access road was threatened by flames. Temperatures topped 40C as a third heatwave gripped the continent, and the European Union has dispatched firefighting aircraft from Croatia, Portugal, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Italy and Greece. This summer has burned the second-largest area on record across the bloc. For the many Britons holidaying on the French and Spanish coasts, the fires are a direct hazard. Watch whether the heat breaks this weekend.