OVER 200,000 EVACUATED AS WILDFIRES SPREAD ACROSS FRANCE AND SPAIN

More than 200,000 people have been ordered to evacuate their homes as wildfires continue to spread across southwestern France and central Spain. On Saturday, officials ordered the evacuation of large parts of Bordeaux's suburbs, including Le Haillan, Eysines and Merignac. French Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu stated on X that the fires had "reached a level that has never been seen before". The French army has been deployed to assist with the crisis.

Officials from both countries warned that wind conditions would worsen the situation. Madrid's regional president Isabel Díaz Ayuso described the fire as the "worst fire in the history of the region", with high temperatures, strong winds and the merging of separate blazes contributing to the severity. Carlos Novillo, Madrid's emergency management chief, told reporters on Friday that the fire was "at its peak and currently beyond the capacity of firefighters to contain". Landes prefect Gilles Clavreul reported that winds reaching 50 kilometres per hour and temperatures of 36–37 degrees Celsius would prevent the fire from being extinguished by the end of Friday.

Prime Minister Lecornu announced that 1.5 million FFP2 masks would be delivered to Gironde on Friday to protect firefighting personnel and populations exposed to smoke. French President Emmanuel Macron authorised the military deployment following the country's recent record-breaking heatwave. Spanish and French officials stated that Saturday's forecast winds would be "erratic" and create "difficult" conditions for emergency efforts.