British families were jolted awake at 3.30am when a hotel staff member knocked on their doors and told them to evacuate. Smoke from wildfires 20 miles away was drifting towards Bordeaux, and the Holiday Inn near the airport was closing.
Nicola Smith, 49, from Jersey, was holidaying with her husband Martin, daughter, granddaughter and six other relatives. “We were all fast asleep when a member of hotel staff knocked on the door about 3.30am and said that we were having to evacuate,” she told the Daily Mail. “It was a shock to the system and quite dramatic but I’d been getting alerts on my phone all night.” Her husband Martin added: “You could really smell the smoke when we first arrived, there was a kind of haze in the air.”
“Over 220,000 evacuated as wildfires rage in France and Spain, with British holidaymakers among thousands forced to flee.”
Across France and Spain, more than 220,000 people have fled their homes as wildfires tear through vast areas of Europe. In southwestern France, 141,000 people were evacuated from the Gironde and Landes departments, the French interior ministry said. The entire Cap Ferret peninsula – a popular tourist destination west of Bordeaux – was cleared, with hundreds escaping by boat. French interior minister Laurent Nuñez told broadcaster TF1 the blaze was “self-sustaining” and had changed direction toward Bordeaux. “We have never seen a convective fire of this magnitude,” he said. Around 50 firefighters have been injured, at least 80 homes destroyed, and more than 46,000 acres burned. French President Emmanuel Macron has mobilised the army to assist.
In central Spain, 60,000 people were forced to leave towns west of Madrid, according to the Spanish interior ministry – a figure later revised to 70,000 by government representative Francisco Martín. He said another 20,000 had been told to shelter indoors, and that there had been no casualties so far. Spain declared its first ever wildfire-related national emergency after two blazes merged near Madrid. Regional leader Isabel Diaz Ayuso said: “This is the worst wildfire in our region’s history. It’s the perfect storm of very high temperatures and ceaseless winds.” Carlos Novillo, the regional government’s emergency management chief, said the fire was “beyond the capacity of firefighters to contain”.
EU countries are sending water-dumping helicopters – two from Italy and two from Greece – to help Spain. But there is no sign of reprieve: weather forecasts predict temperatures will rise sharply again next week, raising fears that the flames could spread further.