More than a quarter of a million people have fled their homes in France and Spain as wildfires racing through tinder-dry forests and scrubland forced authorities into one of Europe’s largest peacetime evacuations. In Spain, the first confirmed civilian fatality was reported late on Saturday when an elderly man was found in a burned-out car near Manises, Valencia, according to local officials. The fire there, separate from the main blazes west of Madrid, was brought under control, but it added to a toll that earlier in the week saw two French firefighters die near Bordeaux.

The most acute pressure fell on the southwestern French departments of Gironde and Landes, where the interior minister said 197,000 people had been ordered to leave areas threatened by flames that have scorched nearly 98,000 hectares since the start of the year—a record for the country. Outside Madrid, the Spanish government declared its first-ever national emergency over a wildfire after two large blazes merged and threatened to combine with a third in the neighbouring province of Ávila, prompting the evacuation of some 70,000 residents. French authorities deployed 1,500 soldiers and, for the first time, an A400M military transport plane adapted to dump fire retardant, while Spain accepted water-bombing aircraft from European Union partners. In a sign of the gravity of the French crisis, the final stage of the Tour de France was shortened from 133 km to 89 km so that overstretched police and emergency services could be redeployed to the fire front.

Official figures for the number of displaced fluctuated through the weekend as surging winds and unpredictable fire behaviour forced rolling evacuation orders. French officials spoke of a “convective” fire in Gironde that generated its own local weather, making it erratic and at times uncontrollable. Near Madrid, authorities conceded that the fire was “beyond control capacity” and that new evacuations were possible as embers jumped containment lines. Air-quality alerts were issued for the Spanish capital, with health authorities urging residents to stay indoors and use masks when outside.

Across both countries, scientists and officials linked the extreme fire conditions to successive heatwaves and a drought that has parched vegetation since the spring. Spain’s prime minister said 130,000 hectares had already burned nationally this year, roughly a third more than the annual average. The European Commission’s Copernicus satellite system was providing emergency mapping, and five rescEU aircraft plus helicopters were dispatched to France. The blazes remained far from contained as night fell, with authorities describing the situation as a “long and very difficult battle” and warning that a change in wind direction could push flames closer to the metropolitan areas of Bordeaux and Madrid.