Thousands of people have been forced to flee their homes on France’s southern border with Italy as wildfires spread out of control through mountains and forest parched by exceptional heat.Authorities appealed for the more than 10,000 people who were evacuated from two dozen towns and villages in the Pyrenees not to attempt to return home as hundreds of firefighters struggled to control the blaze.“The fire is reigniting in Les Aspres,” the prefect of the Eastern Pyrenees region Pierre Regnault de la Mothe said in a public appeal on Monday addressed to the residents of the mountainous area.“I call on all those in the affected community not to try to return home.”Irish families are among those who have been evacuated from campsites in southern France, near the Spanish border.[ Irish woman recalls moment her family knew they had to flee French wildfiresOpens in new window ]Burned houses in a residential area of the town of Ille sur Tet as a wildfire rages in the southern France. Photograph: Jean-Christophe Milhet/AFP via Getty Images Burned trees in the southern France department of Pyrenees-Orientales. Photograph: Gabriel Bouys/AFP via Getty Images Fires in France, Greece, Portugal and Spain have burned through more than 19,000 hectares, sending acrid smoke billowing over nearby cities.Authorities in Greece’s second city Thessaloniki urged residents to stay inside and shut windows after a wildfire ignited a nearby recycling plant, causing a toxic haze to settle over the area.A Copernicus satellite image showed a vast smoke plume from wildfires in Portugal extending 620km over the Atlantic Ocean.The Tour de France cycling contest is taking place without spectators in southern France due to the risk of wildfires, as large parts of the country have triggered red and orange alerts due to the dry conditions.[ Temperatures could reach 30 degrees in Ireland as new heat dome forms over EuropeOpens in new window ]Temperatures in the nearby city of Perpignan are due to reach 39 degrees on Wednesday, as a second heatwave takes hold not long after a “heat dome” in June caused France’s hottest ever day.French president Emmanuel Macron expressed “the nation’s support” to firefighters who were injured while trying to contain the blaze, and urged the public to respect safety instructions.The European Commission announced that water-bombing aircraft from Cyprus and Sweden were on their way to assist.A firefighter sprays water on smoke plumes to prevent the fire from reigniting in the town of Ille sur Tet. Photograph: Jean-Christophe Milhet/AFP via Getty Images Smoke billows after a wildfire passed through the outskirts of Montalba-le-Chateau, in the Pyrenees-Orientales department. Photograph: JC Milhet/AFP via Getty Images “Firefighting aircraft, ground teams and vehicles from Sweden, Cyprus, Italy and Spain are already helping emergency crews on the ground,” emergency response commissioner Hadja Lahbib said in a statement.“As Portugal and France face an extreme wildfire threat during this severe heatwave, every minute matters.”Europe’s summer wildfire season is becoming “longer, earlier and more destructive”, according to the commission, which has said that a record 777 firefighters and 27 aircraft are being sent to help the worst affected countries this year.The EU’s climate change satellite monitoring service Copernicus said that burning of vegetation globally had been lower so far in 2026 than in previous years, but the “observed onset of many large-scale wildfires across Eurasia and North America” could change this.“The predicted El Niño conditions have the potential to increase global fire emissions,” Mark Parrington, senior scientist at the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service said.