Massive wildfires have forced more than 160,000 people from their homes in France and Spain, as exhausted firefighters battled fast-spreading flames that have ravaged large areas near Madrid and Bordeaux.

The fires, which have burned for two to three days, have grown so severe that both countries have sought assistance from the European Union, while France has deployed military personnel to support emergency crews fighting what officials described as unprecedented blazes.

The smell of smoke reached Central Madrid early Saturday as Spanish Prime Minister, Pedro Sanchez, prepared to visit the area affected by what authorities have described as the worst wildfire ever recorded in the surrounding region.

French President, Emmanuel Macron, ordered the military into the operation on Friday as the flames spread during the peak of the country’s holiday season, threatening both residents and tourists.

French Interior Minister, Laurent Nunez, said the country had never experienced fires on such a scale.

A local official also warned that the blaze near Bordeaux was threatening the wider metropolitan area, which is home to some of the world’s most renowned wine-producing estates.

Emergency shelters were opened in schools and sports halls across southwestern France for residents and tourists forced to flee their homes without knowing what they would find when they eventually returned.

“We had no one to put us up,” said Caroline Larrode, 49, who fled her home in Saumos on Friday and sought shelter in a large Bordeaux hangar housing evacuees from the Arcachon Basin. She was accompanied by her cats, Nenette, Poupette and Tina.

French and Spanish authorities said at least 141,000 people had been evacuated from Southwestern France, while another 25,000 were forced to leave their homes in the Madrid region. More than 1,200 elderly and disabled people were among those evacuated in the Spanish region.

Nearly 40,000 other people in Spain were ordered to remain indoors as the fires continued to spread.

The unprecedented wildfires have been fuelled by forests left extremely dry after successive heatwaves that began in May. Scientists have warned that climate change is contributing to more frequent droughts and increasingly severe weather emergencies.

Madrid Fire ‘At Its Peak’

Prime Minister Sanchez was expected to attend an emergency planning meeting in Cenicientos, a village at the centre of the fire zone west of Madrid, before addressing journalists.

Two of the three major fires burning near Madrid have merged, raising fears that they could join with another blaze and create a massive inferno just a few kilometres from the Spanish capital.

Carlos Novillo, the Madrid regional government’s environment official, said on Friday that the fire had reached its peak and was beyond the current capacity of firefighters to contain.

Among those forced to evacuate was Luis, an audiovisual technician who had spent the afternoon helping people fleeing the village of Pelayos de la Presa before he himself received an evacuation order.

“I cried at first because it’s where I grew up. But now, it’s more a feeling of anger and resignation, because there’s nothing we can do as long as we’re not allowed to go back and see what we’ll find there,” he told AFPTV.

Francisco Martin, the Spanish government’s delegate in Madrid, said a forecast drop in temperatures on Saturday could provide firefighters with a chance to make progress against the blaze.

However, he warned that conditions would remain difficult, with stronger winds and unpredictable gusts expected during the morning.

Vast Tracts Destroyed

In France, Prime Minister, Sebastien Lecornu, held a crisis meeting with key ministers late Friday and announced that 1,000 military personnel would be deployed to assist firefighters.

The fires have already destroyed about 22,000 hectares, equivalent to roughly 54,000 acres — an area approximately twice the size of Paris.

In a post on X, Lecornu also announced that 1.5 million protective face masks would be delivered to the Gironde department around Bordeaux to protect emergency personnel and residents exposed to the smoke.

About 44,000 people were evacuated from the wealthy Cap Ferret peninsula south of Bordeaux, an area known for its luxury homes and millionaire residents. Hundreds of those fleeing the area were forced to leave by boat.

In Andernos, 90-year-old Maria Lalanne, who fled from Lege-Cap-Ferret, was sheltering on a camp bed in a gymnasium without her glasses and hearing aid, which she had left behind.

“I have heart disease, high blood pressure and problems with my eyes,” she said. “I don’t know how long all this will last. I don’t know how my house is, whether it has burnt.”

Authorities said about 40 of the 1,000 firefighters fighting the Cap Ferret blaze had been injured.

Three firefighters have died in wildfires in France and Italy this week.

Meanwhile, Spain’s largest active wildfire continued to burn in Guadalajara province, about 100 kilometres north of Madrid, where it has destroyed approximately 32,000 hectares of land.