More than 250,000 people have been forced to flee as wildfires engulf large parts of western France and central Spain, with flames destroying forests and homes near Bordeaux and Madrid.
Firefighters have said the blazes, the largest recorded in both countries in recent years, are too severe to be tackled head-on.
One person killed in wildfire near Valencia
Spain’s Interior Ministry said Saturday that one person died in a wildfire in the town of Manises, near Valencia.
Local officials said firefighters brought the blaze under control in Manises but “unfortunately the fire took the life of one person.” The body was found in a car in a ravine.
Two French firefighters died near Bordeaux earlier this week and one died in Sicily, Italy, which is still battling the blaze.
On the Atlantic coast of France, 44,000 people were evacuated from the Cap Ferret peninsula, many by boat.
Towns near Bordeaux, a wine-making city popular with tourists, were evacuated “as a precaution” as the flames were pushed by high winds.
On Saturday morning, regional authorities ordered the evacuation of three western suburbs of the city “to ensure the safety of residents”.
Overall, French officials say more than 197,000 people have been evacuated in France’s western Gironde and Landes departments.
The Interior Ministry in Spain said 70,000 people had been forced to flee.
The EU is sending firefighting planes to France and Spain
French officials say the country’s two main fires were accidental, although the severity of such fires has grown exponentially as summers have become drier and hotter.
French Interior Minister Laurent Nunez, who said the government would do everything possible to protect civilians, warned that the change in wind had turned the Cap Ferret fire into “a large, self-sustaining fire that is extremely difficult to bring under control.”
“It is now moving east, towards the Bordeaux metropolitan area,” said Núñez, who pledged, “We are going to reorganize our response so that we can fight it from the ground and prevent it from advancing towards Bordeaux.”
French President Emmanuel Macron on Friday called for EU assistance as well as mobilizing the French military to stop the fires, which have so far destroyed 22,000 hectares (54,000 acres) of land.
The European Commission announced it was sending three firefighting planes to France and four to Spain in an effort to get the upper hand.
This week’s fires have injured dozens of firefighters and killed three of them – two in western France and one in Sicily, Italy, which is still battling the blaze.
The Tour de France has been shortened and will be effectively confined to Paris on Sunday as emergency services are needed to deal with wildfires in the country.
Spain declared national emergency
In Spain, the government has declared a national emergency as two of the country’s three existing fires, burning near the capital Madrid, merged into one.
Madrid’s regional emergency management services said the massive fire had now “reached its peak and is beyond the capacity of firefighters to bring it under control.”
The largest active fire in the region, in Guadalajara province, has already destroyed about 32,000 hectares of land.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez visited affected areas west of the capital on Saturday and insisted the priority was “saving lives”, as temperatures in the area topped 37 degrees Celsius (98.6 Fahrenheit).
NASA shuts down comms facility amid extreme heat in Spain
US space agency NASA reported on Saturday that it was forced to evacuate its Madrid Deep Space Communications Complex (MDSCC), which is located in the region. The facility is one of three worldwide that allow the agency to communicate with spacecraft in distant parts of the galaxy – the others are located in Australia and the US.
“The safety and well-being of our personnel is our top priority and our thoughts are with the families and neighbors who are experiencing the impacts of the wildfires in surrounding communities,” the agency said in a statement.
Spain, which sees regular wildfires, has experienced a particularly devastating summer. Earlier this month, 13 people died in a fire in the south of the country.
Environmental officials say 1,140 square kilometers (440 square miles) have already burned this year, five times more than will burn in the first half of 2025.
Edited by: Kieran Burke and Rana Taha
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