Firefighters battled on Sunday to contain wildfires threatening the outskirts of Bordeaux, as authorities expanded evacuation orders and warned the blazes were spreading rapidly during an intense heatwave across southern Europe.
More than 220,000 people have now been evacuated from southwestern France after fires that broke out earlier this week reached Cap Ferret, a popular holiday destination on the Atlantic coast.
Officials said the wildfire advanced quickly overnight, fuelled by high temperatures and dry conditions.
"Over the course of last night, the fire was observed to have made rapid progress," the local authority for the Bordeaux area said in a statement.
The Bordeaux region, renowned for its vineyards, is also a major transport hub for tourists travelling to seaside resorts along France's Atlantic coast.
High winds have stoked and spread the fires in both France and Spain. The coast near Bordeaux is a tourist hotspot which includes pine forests that can catch fire easily. The city is also famous for its eponymous wines from nearby vineyards.
"We expect a fight that will be long and very difficult," Interior Minister Laurent Nunez later told reporters on Saturday.
France's armed forces have been drafted in to help overwhelmed fire brigades. On Saturday afternoon an A400M military transport aircraft, the biggest in France's fleet, joined the effort by dumping liquid over a flame-hit forest, Reuters TV footage filmed from a helicopter showed.
Local farmers joined firefighters in an effort to slow the advance of the flames.
"We came to lend a hand because if it were our region, we'd want others to do the same," said 65-year-old farmer Pascal Roudier. "Given the scale of the disaster, we think our efforts are very welcome too."
The fires in France come as large parts of Europe endure an intense summer heatwave. Spain has declared a national emergency over multiple wildfires, while an elderly man died in a blaze near Valencia.
Many Madrid residents have second homes in the area west of the capital where the two fires merged, which is still in the administrative region of Madrid.
A third fire in Avila province has threatened to merge with the two in Madrid. Further complicating efforts to control them, one firefighters' union in Madrid is on strike, although the impact on numbers of firefighters deployed appeared small.
So far in July, high temperatures have averaged 32.2 degrees Celsius (90 degrees Fahrenheit) in the Aquitaine region, which is 7.3 C above the month's normal high between 1961 and 1990, Reuters Climate Monitor shows.
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