Members of the Kiat Yack Martial Arts Academy of Spanish, Moroccan, Colombian and Romanian origin move to help extinguish flames around the academy in the village of El Tiemblo, during wildfires affecting Castilla y Leon province, Spain, on Friday. (Violeta Santos Moura/Reuters) Spain declared a state of emergency and sent the military to try to contain wildfires near Madrid, while France evacuated thousands of tourists threatened by a blaze west of Bordeaux.More than 10,000 people have been evacuated from areas as close as 50 kilometers (31 miles) to the Spanish capital, with more than 270 firefighters trying to extinguish the blazes. In Ávila province, about 1,500 people have been evacuated.Spain and France have been at the epicenter of Europe’s wildfire season, which started early this year and accelerated in recent weeks as successive heat waves baked vegetation, making it easier for flames to spread rapidly. Fires have burned more than 329,000 hectares across the continent, destroying crops and disrupting transport services.French authorities ordered the evacuation of 110,000 residents and tourists after wildfires threatened to reach Cap Ferret peninsula, a popular tourist area west of Bordeaux, and other areas in the region, Interior Minister Laurent Nunez said on TF1 television Friday evening.He added that the fire was now progressing toward the Bordeaux metro area and that further evacuations of towns in that direction were likely overnight.The blazes have burned about 10,000 hectares and engulfed a number of houses. In the nearby Landes department, wildfires torched 2,600 hectares, leading to the evacuation of more than 23,000 people.By declaring a national emergency for Madrid and Avila, the Spanish government has taken control of the response, with the Interior Ministry coordinating efforts and the country’s military emergency unit managing field operations.Three fires outside Madrid have coalesced as the emergency services struggled to contain them, while a number of other blazes are burning across the country.“Very adverse meteorological conditions are expected for tomorrow,” Madrid region president Isabel Díaz Ayuso wrote in a post on X on Thursday evening. “It is necessary to reinforce national and even international support to these fires.”Temperatures in Andalucia were forecast to climb as high as 44C (111F) on Friday, with red and amber heat alerts throughout Spain’s central and eastern provinces, according to meteorological agency Aemet. However, conditions will cool significantly over the weekend in both Spain and France, providing some respite for firefighters.Climate change is intensifying periods of extreme heat in Europe, the fastest-warming continent. Record-breaking heat and drought have fueled the worst start ever to the global wildfire season, with climate scientists warning that a developing El Niño could bring even harsher conditions later this summer.The European Union has sent two planes and two helicopters to Gironde, as well as another plane to Nîmes, to help fight the wildfires in France, a European Commission spokesperson said. Greece is sending two firefighting aircraft to assist Spain, after Madrid requested the European Civil Protection Mechanism to be activated.Earlier this month, a deadly blaze in Spain killed 13 people and scorched through about 70 square kilometers near Almería.Last week was the worst for wildfires across Spain this year, according to the European Forest Fire Information System. A total of about 140,000 hectares have burnt in the country so far in 2026, more than three times the average for the past two decades.The fires around Madrid are some of the country’s most critical, after one in Guadalajara which has burnt more than 32,000 hectares.A cloud of smoke from the fires is seen crossing the Iberian Peninsula due to winds, according to a satellite image shared by Aemet.--With assistance from Julien Ponthus, James Regan, Laura Millan, Yurii Stasiuk and Suzanne Lynch. (Bloomberg)