FRENCH President Emmanuel Macron held a crisis meeting today in response to massive, uncontrolled wildfires that have forced more than 250,000 people to flee their homes.

In the Gironde region of south-west France, where flames have burned an area four times the size of Paris, the prefecture said the situation overnight had remained “globally stable” — a change from previous days when the giant blaze raging since last week edged closer to the city of Bordeaux.

In the adjacent Landes region, where hundreds of firefighters have been making progress against another virulent but smaller fire, the prefecture said some rain had fallen overnight. It described conditions as “favourable” for firefighting but also cautioned that they could change.

No new evacuations were announced, but with France about to enter its peak August tourist season, Gironde authorities took more steps to keep visitors away, banning holiday camps for children and for people with disabilities. 

The region has evacuated a staggering 220,000 people from fire-hit towns and villages and other localities between the giant blaze and Bordeaux.

With thousands of firefighters on the ground and planes dropping water and fire retardant from the air, the massive operation was battling to make progress before a forecast surge in temperatures from Tuesday that could make fighting flames more difficult.

Mr Macron didn’t immediately comment after chairing the government crisis meeting, but in a social media post at the weekend he pledged long-term support for fire-hit communities, saying: “We will rebuild, we will repair, and we will be present for as long as necessary.”

In Spain, wildfires have burned out of control around Madrid and in the Valencia region. The authorities have evacuated 76,000 people and confined 30,000 to their homes.

In both Spain and France, the exceptional scale of the fires — fuelled by heatwaves that hit especially hard and early this year, making forests and scrubland tinder-dry — are driving calls for stronger action against climate change.

“What we are experiencing is not a series of isolated incidents. It is the consequence of a climate emergency that is making wildfires even more violent, heatwaves more frequent,” Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said.

A fire raging in hilly, rural terrain in Avila, west of Madrid, has become Spain’s largest on record, scorching 193 square miles, the government says.

In total, fires have burned 590 square miles this year in Spain, said Ecology Minister Sara Aagesen.