LEGE-CAP-FERRET, France, July 24, 2026 (BSS/AFP) - Luggage-clad residents and 
tourists fled a French peninsula by boat and the smell of smoke drifted into 
parts of Madrid on Friday as wildfires swept through parts of western Europe, 
triggering states of emergencies and calls for EU help.

In France, fires raging near the country's prized wine country of Bordeaux 
forced hundreds of people to flee the Cap Ferret peninsula in the middle of 
the summer vacation season as the blaze devoured an area nearly twice the 
size of Manhattan.

In Spain, two separate blazes were raging out of control within 100 
kilometres (62 miles) of Madrid, with some residents of the Spanish capital 
waking up to the smell of smoke, according to residents.

"The gendarmes came and knocked on every door, the fire was about 500 metres 
away -- we grabbed some things and left," Patrick Martineau, a 69-year-old 
resident of Le Porge, south of Bordeaux, said.

Three firefighters have been killed as southern Europe endures more severe 
heat, with temperatures topping 40C in some areas.

The total area of land burnt so far this year in EU countries is the second 
largest on record, according to satellite data from the European Forest Fire 
Information System (EFFIS).

French authorities have ordered thousands of tourists on the southwestern 
Atlantic coast out of campsites and holiday homes, as firefighters backed by 
water-bombing planes raced to control the blazes.

More than 23,000 people have been evacuated in the region so far.

France has invoked the European Union's civil protection mechanism to ask for 
help, President Emmanuel Macron said on Friday, warning that the crisis 
remained "very intense".

The EU said it would provide three water-bombing planes to France.

In Spain, the government declared a state of emergency in the Madrid region, 
where more than 10,000 people have been evacuated in recent days, with Prime 
Minister Pedro Sanchez calling the situation "dramatic".

"Meteorological conditions, fundamentally the wind, will complicate 
firefighting operations this Friday," the Madrid regional government said in 
a post on X.

France's southeast was also being hard hit, with dozens of fires flaring up 
and being fanned by the mistral wind around the historic village of Cotignac 
-- officials saying around 25 houses had been destroyed since Tuesday.

In Italy, thousands of emergency workers battled scores of fires in Sicily 
and in the Calabria region, where a local official said arsonists had started 
fires by tying rags soaked in flammable liquid to the tails of stray cats to 
spread the flames.

One firefighter died after falling ill while battling the flames in Sicily, 
the interior minister said.

Two firefighters died on Tuesday tackling another blaze near Bordeaux 
airport.

- 'No chance' -

Skies over Le Porge turned orange as smoke rose from charred and crackling 
pine trees, while helicopters made repeated runs over deserted 
neighbourhoods.

Fires in 2022 damaged a massive area of the same forest, forcing around 
50,000 people to flee.

The blazes are breaking out faster because of climate change caused by the 
burning of oil, coal and gas. European droughts are now more severe, 
climatologists from the World Weather Attribution group said in a study 
published on Thursday.

In Spain, hundreds of firefighters and troops were still struggling to 
contain a huge wildfire in Guadalajara province, north of Madrid and a 
smaller fire near the city of Toledo, which forced the evacuation of several 
villages.

"Climate change is what kills, what destroys our villages and our natural and 
cultural heritage," civil protection chief Virginia Barcones told Spanish 
radio.

She warned some fires become so intense that, despite the deployment of 
aircraft and ground crews, firefighters stand "no chance".