Wildfires in Spain and France are forcing the evacuation of 200,000 people Climate Crisis News

France asked for international aid, while Spain declared a national state of emergency.

Nearly 200,000 people have been evacuated from their homes and holiday resorts as wildfires blaze across France and Spain.

Spanish firefighters hoped to tackle a raging blaze near the capital Madrid on Saturday, but an official warned strong winds threatened to fan the blaze, as gray smoke billowed west of the city.

Carlos Novillo, head of Madrid’s regional emergency management, said the wildfire near the capital “is at its peak and is going beyond what firefighters cannot put out”.

Two separate wildfires merged Friday into one a big firewhich was about to join another in the neighboring region of Castilla y Leon.

Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez was scheduled to attend an emergency preparedness meeting Saturday morning in Cenicientos, a village at the center of the fire, and speak to the media afterward.

In France, authorities on Saturday evacuated thousands of people from villages near Bordeaux as wildfires raged around the city showed no signs of abating.

Sophie Brocas, who heads the local administration of La Nouvelle-Aquitaine et ⁠de la Gironde, which covers the Bordeaux region, said the regions of Le Haillan, Eysines and Merignac are being excluded.

The Bordeaux region is famous for its vineyards and the city is one of the tourist destinations for the nearby Atlantic coast resorts.

About 44,000 people have fled the island of Cap Ferret south of Bordeaux, with the only road threatened by the flames.

Boats evacuated hundreds of people away from the fire, while others fled the island, which is known for housing millions of people. More than 50 houses there have been destroyed.

French Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu said more than 141,000 people had been evacuated to the Gironde and Landes regions.

“The fire burning our country has reached an unprecedented level,” Lecornu wrote on X on Saturday.

The French army has also been drafted in to help, while Macron has asked for help from the European Union.

About 141,000 people were evacuated in southwestern France and 25,000 in the Madrid region, among them more than 1,200 elderly and disabled, French and Spanish officials said.

Some parts of Europe have been hit by at least two waves since May. And drought caused by human-induced climate change has increased the risk of wildfires this year, the World Weather Attribution Group said in a study published this week.