Brussels ambitious wildfire response hasn't been enough to contain firespublished at 22:22 BST

22:22 BST

Nick Beake
Europe Correspondent

I was at briefing in Brussels last month when European Commission officials spoke of their concern that wildfire season had started earlier this year.

They said the omens were not good.

Since then we’ve had the devastating fires in southeast Spain, in which seven Britons were among the dead.

And now both Spanish and French officials talk of an unprecedented struggle to contain these current blazes.

Commission officials had told reporters that a fleet of nearly 30 planes and helicopters, as well as 800 firefighters, had been pre-positioned across Europe.

They called it their most ambitious wildfire response yet. It hasn’t been enough to contain fires that are being described grimly as historic.

Every effort will be needed it in the days and weeks to come, judging by the ferocity of the wildfires so far this summer.

In the short-term, rainfall, lower temperatures and gentler winds are what’s really needed.

The scale of these Spain and France wildfires is strikingpublished at 22:16 BST

22:16 BST

Justin Rowlatt
Climate editor

July is the heart of the Mediterranean wildfire season, so the fires in Spain and southern France are not in themselves unusually early. What is striking is the scale already reached.

Spain has burned far more land than at the same point last year, while France says significant fire activity began several weeks earlier than usual and the area burned is already well above normal.

Europe is the fastest-warming continent, heating at more than twice the global average, and that rapid warming is making its summers hotter and, particularly in the south, drier.

Those conditions leave soil, trees and other vegetation with less moisture, creating the fuel in which wildfires can take hold. A spark is still needed - most often from human activity, usually accidental but sometimes deliberate, or from lightning.

Once a fire starts, extreme heat, dry vegetation and strong winds can help it spread faster, burn more intensely and become much harder to control.

How forests and landscapes are managed also matters: Accumulated vegetation and abandoned land can provide more fuel for fires.

But the European Environment Agency has said “climate change has increased forest fire risk across Europe”, with the greatest danger expected in southern Europe.

Ben Rich
Lead Weather Presenter

Image source, EPA

The weekend forecast provides a little hope for the situation around Madrid with the fire danger predicted to drop a little – but the picture is far from straightforward.

Temperatures on Saturday will be lower than recently, peaking at around 29C (84F). The humidity may rise a little as well, meaning slightly more moisture in the atmosphere.

Scattered showers and thunderstorms will affect parts of northern Spain and authorities will be hoping that some of these move across the Madrid area. Local forecasts suggest about a 25% chance of rain which, of course, means a 75% chance that it will remain dry.

The winds could also continue to fan the flames, strengthening through the day with gusts potentially touching 45km/h (28mph) during the afternoon and into the evening.

By Sunday the winds will be lighter although it is, unfortunately, expected to remain dry.

And there will undoubtedly be concerns about the forecast for next week, with computer weather models suggesting temperatures could climb again, perhaps touching 40C (104F) – with the threat of further gusty winds at times and very little, if any, rain in the forecast.

Image source, Getty Images

Spanish Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska has been speaking to national media this evening to provide an update on the wildfires.

He tells Cadena Ser's Hora 25 programme that "nearly 60,000 people" are being affected by the fires, with at least 30,000 evacuated and more than 20,000 in lockdown.

"It's a difficult and complex situation but conditions may improve in the coming hours," Grande-Marlaska says.

"The first priority is to save lives and ensure people's safety."

Since the start of the fires, more than 140,000 people have been forced to leave their homes in Spain and France, 110,000 in the Gironde region alone.

Image source, Reuters

Amid the wildfires, some residents are hunkering down with hoses to try and save their homes.

Ludovic Pollet, a resident of Cap Ferret in France - an area near Bordeaux where tens of thousands have been evacuated - describes a desperate wait for firefighters last night.

"We didn't see a single truck all night, except for one, but it arrived very late," Pollet tells Reuters, who is a former firefighter himself.

"I really had to push hard to get it. With those four firemen, plus my son and me, we managed to save four houses."

Ben Rich
Lead Weather Presenter

Much-needed rain is currently falling in parts of the Gironde region of France with scattered showers and thunderstorms moving in from the west.

This rain is quite patchy in nature but authorities will be hoping that it becomes more widespread overnight and during tomorrow.

As well as that, easterly winds which have been bringing very dry air from the interior of France are being replaced by west or north-westerly winds which will instead feed moist and humid air across the region, from the Atlantic.

However, these winds will still be strong and rather gusty – perhaps touching 50km/h (31mph) or more – so despite the change to a more favourable direction, they could continue to fan the flames.

Further spells of rain are possible, but not guaranteed, over the weekend. However it looks likely to turn largely dry once again next week, and temperatures will climb.

Winds will be rather variable but will occasionally blow from the dry interior, so forecasters will be watching the conditions very closely as they unfold.

Image source, Reuters

Olivia Jarratt, 44, was evacuated from the Truc Vert campsite in Lège-Cap-Ferret with her husband and two children in the early hours of Friday morning.

Her daughter was woken with sirens and the family left their tent, camping gear and bikes behind as they made the drive to Bordeaux.

"At first, we dismissed it, and thought she was having a nightmare, but we realised it was all going on, and everyone was packing in a panic. There's only one road off the peninsula, so people were trying to be as quick as possible.

"There was a loudspeaker with the sirens, but obviously that was in French, and with everything, we couldn't understand what was happening."

Headmaster David Morton, 53, from Gloucester in southwest England, had been on holiday with his wife and sons when they received an emergency alert via text overnight on Thursday instructing them to evacuate.

The family were staying in a house in Petit Piquey, in the Cap Ferret peninsula, and were woken up at 03:00 local time (02:00 BST) by an alert on the property's landline.

"Everyone was driving with their lights on, driving very slowly – there was lots of fire service people, ambulances, police on the other side of the road controlling things and we could see several fires in the distance as we drove," he has told the BBC.

"It's different from seeing it on the television… seeing it blazing out of control despite hundreds and hundreds of firemen and women helping."

Image source, David Morton

Hugh Schofield
Paris Correspondent

The outlook for these fires in France is not optimistic.

The winds are shifting and unpredictable, and months of heat and drought have created alarmingly dangerous conditions.

It's already been a terrible year for forest fires, but in France, these are the most severe yet.

The great fear is that the worst is yet to come.

There’s no prospect of rain, and next week more high temperatures are forecast.

Image source, Reuters

The mayor of one of the hardest hit areas of France has described how the wildfires are "the worst-case scenario" and authorities are dealing with a "massive, unprecedented fire".

The Mayor of Lège-Cap Ferret Philippe de Gonneville tells reporters how the region has "faced extreme weather conditions for the last month and a half" without rain and with temperatures above average.

"It is unheard of," he says. "Neither we nor the firefighters have ever seen anything like it."

The mayor says two fire breaks have been created to prevent the fire from spreading down towards Cap Ferret and "the defensive lines appear to be holding".

The entire Cap Ferret peninsula was evacuated "using both land and sea routes" after the fire spread, he explains.

Image source, AFP via Getty Images

Spanish Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska has told Spain's public broadcaster RTVE that authorities are doing "everything we can" to prevent the Ávila fire merging with the fires in Madrid.

Grande-Marlaska says the situation is "complex" and authorities will "carry out all necessary evacuations and containment measures".

He adds that saving lives is the top priority.

Local emergency services said this afternoon that two fires to the west of Madrid had merged. The regional government's emergency management chief said that the fire is "beyond the capacity" of firefighters "to extinguish it".

Image source, Getty Images

The latest figures from the French interior minister mean around 135,000 people have been evacuated across France and Spain.

As we just reported, the minister said 110,000 people have been evacuated in south-west France as fires burn in the Gironde and Landes regions.

Across the border in Spain, a further 25,000 people have been evacuatedand more than 20,000 are in lockdown, according to officials in Madrid, as fires burn west of the city.

The delegate of the government in the Community of Madrid, Francisco Martín, revealed the figures in his latest press update.

Image source, Getty Images

France's Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez says that 110,000 people have been evacuated as the wildfires have burned over 14,000 hectares (34,600 acres) in south-west France.

"We have never seen a convective fire of this magnitude," Nuñez tells French broadcaster TF1, explaining that around 50 firefighters have been injured today.

Nuñez explains that firefighters have been left exhausted and that they will be reinforced by military resources to "combat this completely unprecedented situation".

He describes how the fire is "self-sustaining" and changes direction, explaining that it is heading east towards the Bordeaux metropolitan area.

Nuñez adds that Bordeaux airport is currently closed and European countries have responded to France's calls for help.

Earlier, we heard that more than 44,000 had been evacuated from the area.

The evacuations across France and Spain now total 135,000, according to the latest figures from both countries.

Madrid's regional government says the wildfires are affecting air quality in the areas around the city, warning residents that they could be exposed to the effects of smoke.

In a notice on the Comunidad de Madrid website, it says special attention should be paid to vulnerable people, including children, elderly residents, pregnant women and people with respiratory or cardiovascular diseases.

It advises people to close doors, windows and all ventilation in their homes, to prevent smoke from entering, adding that people should avoid going outside unless it's absolutely necessary.

Image source, Getty Images

The wildfire raging near Madrid is "at its peak" and it is "beyond the capacity" of firefighters "to extinguish it", a local official says.

Carlos Novillo - the regional government's emergency management chief - says the fire is moving toward the municipalities of Robledo de Chavela and Fresnedillas de la Oliva, a few dozen kilometres from Madrid's western outskirts.

People in the two areas were earlier ordered to evacuate by authorities.

"It is not possible to attack the fire in that area, so defensive measures are being taken," Novillo tells reporters.

Approximately 25,000 people have been evacuated and more than 20,000 are in lockdown, Madrid officials say.

Persistent warm and dry weather conditions in France mean wildfires in the region have been even tougher to contain.

On the Cap Ferret peninsula, hundreds escaped the area by boat when they were ordered to evacuate.

Image source, EPA

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, AFP via Getty Images

Image source, Reuters

Image source, EPA/Shutterstock

Madrid's regional president has described how the fires near the Spanish capital are some of the worst it has ever seen.

Responding to the spread of fires, Isabel Díaz Ayuso says it is "the worst fire in the history of the region".

Speaking at an emergency command post in the south-western municipality of Cenicientos, she describes how the area has been facing a "perfect storm" with high temperatures, relentless wind and several fire fronts merging.

"The situation is completely unusual and catastrophic," she says, adding that the priority was saving lives.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has also described how people are "living through a dramatic situation" as forest fires ravage thousands of hectares.

Ecologio Cabrera, 86, was forced to flee his village west of the Spanish capital because of the deadly wildfires.

"If you don't run from it and you try to face it, it devours you," he tells AFP news agency in a sports hall in the village of Vilamanta, where hundreds of evacuees have sought refuge.

Cabrera recalls firefighters racing through his neighbourhood in Aldea del Fresno where he has lived for nearly three decades, ordering everyone to leave immediately.

The family fought to save their home by spraying it continuously with garden hoses until firefighters appeared, he says.

"They arrived and told everybody to get out... I have never experienced anything like this."

Image source, Reuters

More than 65,000 people have been evacuated across Spain and France as significant wildfires continue to burn on the continent.

Approximately 25,000 people have been evacuated in Spain and more than 20,000 are in lockdown, the delegate of the government in the Community of Madrid, Francisco Martín, says in his latest press update.

Meanwhile, more than 44,000 people have been forced to evacuate over the past two days in the south-west of France following a wildfire in the Gironde region.

The fire has destroyed more than 12,500 hectares of forest as well as 53 homes and a campsite as of 12:00 local time (11:00 BST) on Friday, local prefect Sophie Brocas announced.

Brocas also announced further preventive evacuations in the districts of Arès, Andernos, Le Temple, and Saumos.

Image source, Getty Images

Authorities in France's Gironde region are expanding evacuation orders due to the rapidly spreading wildfire there.

The municipalities of Sainte-Hélène, Salaunes and Lanton, west of Bordeaux, have now been ordered to undergo preventative evacuation.

The Gironde blaze - described as an "XXL fire" by local prefect Sophie Broca - had already forced the evacuation of the Cap Ferret peninsula.

In an online post announcing the latest evacuations, officials urged those in the area to "follow the instructions of the authorities and stay informed".