Thousands of tourists have been forced to flee a top French holiday hotspot, with many evacuated by boat to escape a raging wildfire. The area of Lege-Cap Ferret in southwestern France - an upmarket tourist destination known as the French Hamptons - is in the middle of a total evacuation with thousands of hectares of forest burning and villas going up in smoke. French President Emmanuel Macron has already requested help from the European Union as the country's growing battle against wildfires intensifies. Images showed scores of residents boarding boats this morning as they evacuated the area while a French television report was interrupted by a fireball blast when a gas canister exploded. Residents have described the inferno as 'mega-fire' and apocalyptic, with few means of escape from the thin peninsula. 'France has requested the activation of the European Union's civil protection mechanism. We will soon be able to count on reinforcements from two Croatian Canadair aircraft, two Portuguese Air Tractor planes, as well as two heavy Black Hawk helicopters from the Czech Republic and Slovakia,' wrote Macron on X on Friday. Sophie Brocas, the prefect for the Nouvelle Aquitaine region, said on Friday that evacuees from the Lege-Cap Ferret peninsula could leave from piers in four villages in the area between 7 a.m. and 10 a.m. local time. All those still present in those villages must leave either on the boats or by the only road linking the area with the mainland, she added. Flames fanned by scorching temperatures have been sweeping through parts of western France. Pictured: A wildfire advances through Lege-Cap-Ferret in Gironde