Photos: France, Spain battle ‘monster’ wildfires as more heat looms

Firefighters are battling enormous wildfires tearing through forests in France and Spain, as authorities warn of a new heatwave set to engulf the scorched French wine-growing region around the city of Bordeaux.

More than 325,000 people have been forced to leave their homes, mostly in the Gironde region, which includes Bordeaux, as some of the worst forest fires in either country’s history rage across southwest France and central Spain near Madrid.

France’s fires have caused an unprecedented “pyrocumulonimbus”, a giant fire cloud that creates its own winds and produces lightning that sparks further blazes, the National Firefighters Federation of France (FNSPF) said.

Spain’s interior minister, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, said on Sunday evening that the fires were advancing, but slowly.

Earlier on Sunday, civil protection chief Virginia Barcones, describing the fire around Avila, said the country was battling a “monster”.

“We are dealing with a perimetre of 280km encompassing 77,000 hectares [190,000 acres],” Barcones told state broadcaster TVE of the wildfire.

Scientists say climate change is making such extreme weather events more frequent and more intense.

At the height of the summer holiday season, the fires have been fuelled by woodland dried to tinder by successive heatwaves and a lack of rain since May.

The Gironde local authority said early on Monday that it had banned holiday camps, including Scouts’ trips involving overnight stays and holiday camps for people with disabilities.

King Felipe VI, visiting an emergency shelter in Villamanta on Madrid’s western outskirts, said the wildfires had caused “incalculable” damage to Spain’s natural heritage.

About 75,000 residents have been evacuated from the Madrid region, Avila, Toledo and from the eastern region of Castellon in Valencia.

Officials said winds were pushing wildfires near Madrid to the south, away from the capital for now, but forcing more evacuations of villages in their path.