Thousands of residents and vacationers fled raging wildfires across France and Spain on Friday as fast-moving blazes, fueled by extreme heat, drought and strong winds, forced mass evacuations, overwhelmed firefighters and prompted both countries to seek emergency assistance from the European Union.
The worst fires were burning in southwestern France near Bordeaux, where flames tore through forests and tourist destinations along the Atlantic coast, forcing more than 25,000 people to evacuate campsites, holiday homes and nearby communities.
Authorities said the largest fire had consumed about 4,800 hectares (11,860 acres), an area nearly twice the size of Manhattan, while another blaze south of Bordeaux destroyed about 1,200 hectares (2,965 acres).
President Emmanuel Macron said France had activated the European Union's Civil Protection Mechanism, securing firefighting aircraft and helicopters from Croatia, Portugal, the Czech Republic and Slovakia as officials struggled to contain multiple large fires.
"The situation remains under very high tension in the face of the fires ravaging the country, particularly in Gironde," Macron wrote on X.
The European Union also announced it would dispatch three water-bombing aircraft to reinforce French firefighting efforts.
Around Bordeaux, roughly 800 firefighters, supported by 260 vehicles, five water-bombing aircraft and a helicopter, battled the largest blaze. One firefighter suffered injuries, while authorities reported no additional serious casualties. Earlier this week, two firefighters died while fighting another wildfire near Bordeaux Airport.
On the Cap Ferret peninsula, one of France's busiest summer destinations, tourists carrying luggage boarded boats to escape advancing flames after roads became increasingly threatened by the fire.
"The gendarmes came and knocked on every door. The fire was about 500 meters away. We grabbed some things and left," said Patrick Martineau, a 69-year-old resident of Le Porge, south of Bordeaux.
Smoke darkened skies across the region, turning them orange as helicopters repeatedly dropped water over burning pine forests. The same area suffered devastating fires in 2022 that forced about 50,000 people to evacuate.
Southern France also remained under pressure as powerful mistral winds fueled dozens of additional fires near the historic village of Cotignac. Officials said about 25 homes have been destroyed since Tuesday.
Near Ponteves, northeast of Marseille, authorities evacuated about 500 residents as nearly 800 firefighters and more than 100 soldiers fought another rapidly spreading blaze. France's Defense Ministry said it was preparing an Airbus A400M military transport aircraft capable of dropping 20 tons of water to strengthen firefighting operations.
In neighboring Spain, authorities declared a state of emergency in the Madrid region after two major wildfires burned out of control within 100 kilometers (62 miles) of the capital.
More than 10,000 people have been evacuated in recent days as hundreds of firefighters, military personnel and aircraft battled blazes in Guadalajara province north of Madrid and another near Toledo, where several villages were evacuated.
Many Madrid residents awoke Friday to the smell of smoke drifting into the city.
Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez described the situation as "dramatic," while regional officials warned that strong winds would make firefighting efforts even more difficult.
"Meteorological conditions, fundamentally the wind, will complicate firefighting operations this Friday," the Madrid regional government said on X.
Virginia Barcones, Spain's civil protection chief, said increasingly intense wildfires are becoming more difficult to control despite the deployment of aircraft and ground crews.
"Climate change is what kills, what destroys our villages and our natural and cultural heritage," Barcones told Spanish radio, warning that some fires become so powerful firefighters stand "no chance" of stopping them.
Elsewhere in southern Europe, Italy continued battling dozens of wildfires across Sicily and the Calabria region. One firefighter died after becoming ill while responding to a blaze in Sicily, adding to a growing death toll that now includes three firefighters killed this week across southern Europe.
According to satellite data from the European Forest Fire Information System, the amount of land burned across European Union countries this year is already the second highest ever recorded.
Scientists from the World Weather Attribution group said in a study released Thursday that climate change, driven by the burning of fossil fuels, is making European droughts more severe and creating conditions for larger, faster-moving wildfires.