[AFP]
[AFP]

More than 230,000 residents have been evacuated as of Saturday (local time) as devastating wildfires sweep through France and Spain.

Fire departments have mobilized all available personnel and resources to battle the blazes, but difficult weather conditions are hampering efforts on the ground.

According to French daily Le Figaro, a wildfire that broke out in southwestern France on Wednesday has continued to spread, burning more than 22,000 hectares — roughly twice the area of Paris — and destroying 100 buildings. No casualties have been reported, but by Friday a total of 141,000 people had been evacuated from the affected region alone.

As the fire, which started along the western coastline, shifted eastward on the wind, local authorities issued preemptive evacuation orders early Saturday for seven municipalities near Bordeaux. With more than 69,000 residents in those areas, the total number of evacuees has reached 210,000.

Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu held an interministerial crisis meeting Friday night before posting on X that "the government has decided to mobilize all necessary resources." He said more than 500 troops had already been deployed and that about 15 additional units would join Sunday, bringing the total military personnel supporting firefighters to more than 1,000. He added that 1.5 million FFP2 masks would be delivered to the scene to protect both workers and residents from exposure to hazardous smoke.

France's government-run road traffic information service urged travelers heading out for the summer weekend to "clear the roads for rescue teams," calling on them to avoid driving through fire-affected areas, take detours or postpone their travel altogether.

In Spain, where the government has declared a national emergency over record-breaking wildfires, blazes near the capital Madrid continue to spread with ferocity, forcing about 25,000 people to flee their homes. Spanish authorities have also ordered roughly 40,000 additional residents to shelter in place.

Two wildfires in the western part of the Madrid region merged Friday afternoon into a single, uncontrollable blaze and were at risk of joining yet another fire burning in an adjacent area. According to AFP, the head of the Madrid regional government's emergency operations center told reporters the fires had "reached their peak and are currently beyond the capacity of firefighters to contain."

Madrid authorities warned Saturday morning that strengthening winds and unpredictable gusts were expected to make firefighting even harder. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez was scheduled to hold a press briefing after convening an emergency meeting in the disaster zone that day.

Analysts say the wildfires are not a sudden catastrophe but an extension of the repeated heat waves that have battered Europe in recent months.

Europe has been gripped by abnormally high temperatures since May. Meteorologists attribute the heat to a stationary high-pressure system over the continent drawing scorching air up from North Africa and the Sahara Desert. In late June, temperatures exceeding 40 degrees Celsius spread across Spain, Portugal, France, Italy and Germany, fueling wildfires, driving a surge in electricity demand and causing heat-related deaths. In the week beginning June 22 alone, excess deaths across 27 European countries surpassed the seasonal average by more than 10,000.

The problem is that the heat has not let up after a single episode. After thousands died in temperatures above 40 degrees last month, another heat wave was forecast for Europe in July, and Belgian meteorological authorities warned that temperatures well above 30 degrees could persist for several weeks. Foreign media described it as the continent's third heat wave of the year, with abnormal heat recurring since May and leaving Europe in a prolonged state of distress. Analysts say this cycle of repeated heat waves and dry air ultimately created the conditions for the current wildfires in France and Spain.


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