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More than 250,000 people fled towns and villages in Spain and France into the weekend as uncontrolled wildfires moved ever closer to Madrid and Bordeaux, metropolitan areas that are home to more than 8 million people combined.
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Authorities ordered the immediate evacuation of some western suburbs of Bordeaux, a city in southwestern France famed for its wines, in an area that includes the regional airport.
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Some 197,000 people were evacuated in the Gironde and surrounding areas, Interior Minister Laurent Nunez said at a press conference in Paris. As of Saturday, almost 98,000 hectares (242,000 acres) of land have been scorched in the blazes, a record in France, he said.
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While increased humidity overnight means the conflagration in Gironde is no longer convective, or generating its own winds, the effort to get it under control “will be long and very difficult,” Nunez said.
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The French government ordered more than 1,000 military personnel to support firefighters, Nunez said, adding that an Airbus A400M military transport plane will join Canadairs and other aircraft helping contain the fires in the coming hours.
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Evacuees have in many cases been taken to municipal sports centers as a precautionary measure, mostly to avoid exposure to heavy smoke, which travels faster than flames.
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In Spain, another 30,000 people were evacuated across Ávila province and the region west of Madrid, after 63,000 were evacuated or told to stay indoors as of Friday night. Authorities expect two separate fires raging there to merge at some point.
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The municipal government in Madrid closed off parts of the city’s main parks, telling people to keep away from trees as strong winds were forecast. No casualties have been reported so far.
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“Our priority, our thinking, our aim, is for your lives, to save your lives and protect inhabited areas,” Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said at a press conference in the village of Cenicientos, in the fire zone about 80 kilometers (50 miles) from the capital. Unpredictable winds mean “we’re going to have a challenging few hours,” he said.
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Madrid’s air-quality monitoring system recorded a sharp deterioration in the city’s west on Saturday morning, with the smell of smoke hanging in the air near the Royal Palace in central Madrid.
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France and Spain have been at the epicenter of Europe’s wildfire season, which started earlier than normal and accelerated in recent weeks as successive heat waves baked vegetation, making it easier for flames to spread rapidly. Before the weekend, fires had burned more than 329,000 hectares across the continent, destroying crops and disrupting transport.
