Massive, uncontrolled wildfires in France and Spain have pushed over 250,000 people from their homes and vacation spots. Thick grey smoke clouded the sky west of Madrid on Saturday as Spanish firefighters attempted to contain wildfires blazing close to the country’s capital. However, an official cautioned that unpredictable winds threatened to fan the fires further.
The wildfire close to the capital is “at its peak and is currently beyond the capacity of firefighters to contain,” according to Carlos Novillo, the emergency management chief for the Madrid regional government. The fires have destroyed “between 13,000 and 15,000 hectares” in the nearby province of Avila and nearly 10,000 hectares (25,000 acres) in the Madrid region, according to Spain’s interior ministry.
The entire area is more than twice that of Paris, the capital of France. According to the ministry, 70,000 people have been evacuated in total.
On Friday, two distinct flames merged to form a massive conflagration that was on the verge of merging with another in the nearby Castilla y Leon province.
“Our priority, our thinking, our aim is for your lives, to save your lives and protect inhabited areas,” Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez told reporters on Saturday after attending an emergency planning meeting in Cenicientos, a village in the center of the fire zone. Sanchez warned that fighting the wildfires would be “complex.”
According to French Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu, 197,000 people have been evacuated from the Gironde and Landes regions thus far. Lecornu wrote on X on Saturday that “the fires which are hitting our country have reached a level that has never been seen before.” In response to the wildfires, Lecornu’s office stated that a fresh government crisis meeting will be held later on Saturday. It will be the second meeting in a row that brings together important ministers to discuss the emergency response.
Macron has requested assistance from the European Union, and the French army has also been called in to assist. In order to support its efforts to put out wildfires, he also gave the army instructions to send out a military transport plane.
The commander of the Paris Fire Brigade, Arnaud de Cacqueray, told the AFP news agency that some 100 Paris firemen have also been sent to assist. The wildfires in France have burned almost 98,000 hectares, according to French Interior Minister Laurent Nunez, who called it a “historic record.” “There are still a number of fires across the country that have not yet been brought under control,” he said.
Since May, there have been at least two heatwaves in several parts of Europe. In a research released this week, the World Weather Attribution group claimed that this year’s drought, which is attributed to human-caused climate change, has increased the risk of wildfires.