The forest infernos, raging for days unchecked in France's southwest and in central Spain near Madrid, were among the worst each nation has seen in peacetime.France's major fire has caused an unprecedented "pyrocumulonimbus": a gigantic, untamable fire cloud that creates its own winds and packs lightning that causes more blazes, according to the National Firefighters Federation of France (FNSPF)."It's a David-versus-Goliath scenario: the idea is that, at some point, we'll find a weak spot and strike there," said FNSPF spokesman Eric Brocardi. French President Emmanuel Macron has called a crisis cabinet meeting for Monday morning to discuss responses to the fires, his office said Sunday.Spanish officials voiced optimism they were starting to get a grip on some of their fires -- though on the weekend they were confronted with a new fire front, near the eastern coastal city of Valencia, which forced 15,000 people to flee."Difficult hours lie ahead," Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said as he visited the fire zone in Avila province west of Madrid.A Spanish cabinet member said the fire around the town of Avila was the largest in the country's history.Other EU countries have been sending help to Spain and France in the form of aircraft, fire crews and vehicles.Scientists say that such weather emergencies are being made more extreme and frequent by climate change.