Firefighters raced on Tuesday to subdue huge wildfires that have forced unprecedented evacuations of tens of thousands of people across France and Spain, as western Europe braced for another heatwave.

The fires have torn through a region already battered by a blisteringly hot and dry summer. Crews were seeking to capitalise on more favourable weather before a new wave of higher temperatures settled in from Wednesday.

In the Bordeaux region of France, firefighters contained the forest blaze overnight, while in Spain, authorities allowed people from nine out of 11 towns in the central Toledo province to return to their homes.

However, fires still raged out of control in Madrid and nearby provinces, prompting heightened vigilance.

One Spanish evacuee described a “red hell” of fire, portraying intense scenes as residents fled with little more than clothes on their backs.

Europe, the world’s fastest warming continent, has endured record-breaking heatwaves this year. Scientists say human-driven climate change is intensifying the heat and drought that allow wildfires to spread faster, burn longer and become more destructive.

“The situation we are dealing with today is the most severe we have ever recorded, the toughest since the Second World War,” said French President Emmanuel Macron.

“We are facing a completely unprecedented wildfire,” he told emergency workers in Bordeaux late on Monday.

Wildfires in France have now burned more area than at the same time in any year since 2006.

Bracing for new heatwave

Despite progress in the firefighting effort, the situation remained difficult, said Nathalie Delattre, senator for Gironde, which covers the city of Bordeaux.

“Everything will depend on how the firefighters on the ground get on,” she told BFM TV on Tuesday.

Campsites and tourist residences at Lacanau, by the Atlantic coast near Bordeaux, were being evacuated on Tuesday, the Lacanau local administration said on its Facebook page.

Spain is bracing for its fourth heatwave of the summer from Wednesday, with the risk of fire expected to reach extreme levels due to high temperatures, southerly winds and low humidity.

Firefighters are still battling fires in the region of Madrid and neighbouring provinces of Avila and Toledo.

Conditions during the night in Madrid enabled active fire fronts to be tackled effectively, helping to reduce the threat, though the fires are not yet under control, the Spanish government said.

As of Tuesday, Spain had more than 73,000 evacuees and roughly 66,000 people under confinement.

According to the Reuters Climate Monitor, temperatures in Bordeaux were forecast to hit 33 degrees Celsius on Tuesday, 7.1℃ higher than the daily average in 1961 to 1990, while the Madrid region’s 37℃ would be 5.5℃ above average.

This week’s heatwave is expected to build quickly and peak on Wednesday.

Meteo France also expected the heat to peak on Wednesday, when temperatures in Paris could hit 38℃, but added that the duration of the heatwave “will be determined in the coming days”.

The UK Met Office said it was forecasting “an increasingly warm, but relatively short-lived, spell of hot weather”.

More frequent and intense heatwaves are causing thousands of excess deaths and increasingly disrupting everyday life from snarling road and rail travel to hindering cargo shipping because of low river levels on Europe’s waterways.

It is also having an impact on crop yields; monitoring service MARS on Monday cut all of its 2026 harvest forecasts.

Residents describe ‘red hell’

For those caught in the fire’s path, escape often came down to grabbing relatives and pets, and leaving everything else behind.

Sitting on a camp bed at a French evacuation centre and stroking her cat, consultant Sylvie Michel, 63, praised authorities for providing her and her pets with everything they need.

“In France we tend to be very critically-minded, to put it mildly. And honestly, hats off to everyone involved,” she said.

Spanish evacuee Jose Miguel Encinas, 53, in La Vall d’Uixo in eastern Spain, recalled scenes of “total chaos”.

“It was like in the movies where hell cracked the ground open, and you see the red hell.”