Wildfires continued to rage in parts of France and Spain on Friday, forcing thousands of people to evacuate and prompting authorities to seek help from EU neighbours.
French authorities ordered a complete evacuation of the tourist Cap Ferret peninsula on the Atlantic coast, with many boats forced to flee.
In Spain, two fires broke out near the capital Madrid, prompting authorities to declare a national emergency, the first due to a wildfire.
What do we know about France’s Cap Ferret fire?
More than 60,000 people evacuated Cap Ferret and its surrounding area as the fire engulfed about 100 square kilometers (38 sq mi) of land.
Authorities sent boats to help with the evacuation, with many others using small water taxis.
Interior Minister Laurent Nunez told local television that the fire in Soumous, north of Cap Ferret, was the largest in France so far this season. This threatened to cut off the only road out of the peninsula.
“It’s quite impressive and also scary,” Laurent Moretti, a resident of the town of Ares, was quoted as saying by the Associated Press. “An evacuation on this scale has never happened before. We really hope firefighters can get it under control quickly.”
About 1,500 of those who fled the peninsula reached the city of Arcachon by sea. They were welcomed with coffee, fruits and water in the reception area prepared by city officials.
Nunez said 40,000 people had been evacuated in the Gironde department, with more than 23,000 in the Landes department.
French President Emmanuel Macron said the country would get additional EU troops to help put out the fires, after asking neighbors for help.
Two blazes in Madrid ‘beyond the capacity of firefighters’
As soon as Spanish authorities declared a national emergency over wildfires, two fires broke out despite the deployment of more than 2,000 personnel and 10 aircraft in an effort to control the fires, according to Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlasca.
Authorities have said about 40,000 people were evacuated or confined due to wildfires in the Madrid area. More than 19,000 people were ordered to evacuate from towns in the mountains west of Madrid, where many of the capital’s residents have second homes. This area is densely populated.
Carlos Novillo, the Madrid regional government’s emergency management chief, said the fire outside the Spanish capital was “at its peak” and out of control.
“The forest fire is at its peak and is currently beyond the capacity of firefighters to control it,” he told reporters on Friday.
AFP news agency reported that only emergency vehicles were allowed on the roads near the fire. Police set up checkpoints to prevent unauthorized access.
Nicanor Sen, the government representative for the Castile and Leon region, told reporters that a third fire in nearby Avila province was about to merge with other fires, or may already have done so.
“I’ve lived here for 36 years and I’ve never seen anything like this. Nor did I expect it. I thought they would get it under control last night, but it was too late and everything got out of control,” local resident Javier Martin told Reuters.
Spanish authorities declared a national emergency in the Madrid region and Avila province on Thursday.
“We are experiencing a dramatic situation not only in many Spanish regions but also in neighboring countries,” Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez wrote on Twitter.
Edited by: Sean Sinico and Carl Sexton
Don’t let algorithms hide news. If you trust our team for reliable reporting, please take a moment to select us as your preferred source on Google click here And press the “Star” or “Favorite” button, so you always see our verified news first.