What was supposed to be a peaceful summer getaway for hundreds of tourists and local residents across southwestern France and central Spain turned into a frantic race for survival last week, as out-of-control wildfires tore through dry forest landscapes, forcing mass evacuations that have now displaced more than 220,000 people across both countries. As high winds and record-breaking heat continue to stoke the fast-moving blazes, France has deployed military personnel to assist overstretched firefighting teams, while Spain has declared a national state of emergency to coordinate response efforts.
Multiple tourists who escaped the fire zones shared harrowing firsthand accounts of their ordeals with the BBC, describing chaotic overnight evacuation orders, last-minute escapes that brought them just hundreds of meters from towering 6-story flames, and thousands of displaced people crowding local beaches with all their belongings in tow. Even areas far from the active fire lines report acrid, bonfire-like smoke hanging in the air, a constant reminder of the crisis unfolding nearby.
Zac Morrison, a 21-year-old London resident who arrived at the popular pine-covered Cap Ferret peninsula in southwestern France with 10 family members on Thursday, woke just hours after checking in to two emergency text alerts ordering immediate evacuation ‘by all means necessary’ at 4 a.m. and 6 a.m. He told reporters that French gendarmerie went door-to-door to clear the peninsula, an experience he described as ‘something like out of a movie.’ After evacuating the first fire zone, Morrison’s family was once again placed in the crosshairs of a second spreading blaze, receiving four separate evacuation updates in the days that followed, the most recent arriving Friday afternoon. The family sheltered on a public beach in nearby Arcachon before securing emergency accommodation with a relative, and 11-year-old Nate Morrison, Zac’s brother, has still not processed the trauma of seeing the wild flames firsthand. Morrison noted that many other displaced residents and tourists have been forced to sleep in temporary shelters like schools and warehouses, while hundreds wait on beaches for further instructions, luggage in hand. His family remains in limbo, waiting for official word on whether they can return to their holiday accommodation planned through mid-August. ‘It rained last night but we are hearing that electricity may be cut out over the peninsula, especially as the ash clouds go towards Bordeaux… I’ve heard about houses burning in just an hour, it’s scary but sadly people here are getting used to it,’ Morrison said.
British visitor David Morton, who was wrapping up a week-long holiday to Cap Ferret with his wife and two teenage sons, said his trip was upended on day five when the dry pine forest and extreme heat created ideal conditions for the fire to spread. He told the BBC that his entire family was woken Friday morning by blaring emergency alerts on their phones, ordering immediate evacuation along the only exit road off the peninsula. ‘We literally threw everything into our suitcases and within 15 minutes were in the hire car,’ Morton explained. The family drove within 500 meters of the main blaze, where Morton said flames reached heights taller than full-grown pine trees, equivalent to five or six stories, and the fire was clearly out of control. The family stayed with local friends until their scheduled flight home from Bordeaux departed Saturday.
Not everyone managed to evacuate in time, however. Rebecca Papin, a French-American visiting her holiday home in Biscarrosse, a commune near Cap Ferret, spotted a large plume of smoke in the distance Thursday afternoon. By the time she returned home three hours later, the sky was filled with water-bombing planes and firefighter helicopters, and the horizon was lined with a solid wall of flames. She told BBC Radio 4’s *Today* programme that authorities appeared overwhelmed by the speed of the blaze and never issued a formal evacuation order to her area. Papin, who slept with earplugs to block out the noise of emergency aircraft overnight, missed overnight evacuation alerts and woke Friday morning to find nearly the entire city evacuated, with her still trapped inside. ‘The main roads are closed because they’re on fire – the police advised me on Friday morning at 7.30am to stay in my home, to not leave my home under any circumstance; there was ash falling from the sky like snow,’ she said.
The wildfire crisis has not been limited to France. In central Spain, multiple blazes are burning in regions outside of Madrid, and authorities are working around the clock to prevent separate fire fronts from merging into one massive, uncontrollable blaze. The flames have already forced the closure of a NASA facility 37 kilometers west of Madrid. Madrid’s regional president Isabel Díaz Ayuso has called the blaze the ‘worst fire in the history of the region,’ noting the area is facing a ‘perfect storm’ of record high temperatures, constant gusty winds, and merging fire fronts that makes containment extremely difficult.
Despite the severity of the crisis, major travel links have remained largely unaffected: commercial flights to Bordeaux and Madrid, the two largest cities closest to the fire zones, are still operating normally. French officials have urged foreign tourists not to cancel planned trips to the country, noting that the vast majority of French regions remain unaffected by the blazes. Éléonore Caroit, France’s minister for international partnerships, told reporters Saturday: ‘You have entire areas that are fine, you’re seeing similar phenomena in Spain and other countries. I’m in Paris and nothing is happening, and most other regions are OK, so do please come to France and do not cancel your travel plans. But wherever you are, please do be advised as to what might be happening.’ The UK Foreign Office has also not issued any advisory against travel to France or Spain, despite the ongoing emergency. The UK has had multiple of its own citizens caught up in evacuations, and many have relocated to other regions of France to continue their holidays after fleeing the fire zones.