Wildfires raging in parts of France and Spain have forced more than 325,000 people from their homes, with officials warning of “difficult days ahead” as firefighters battle to bring the blazes under control.About 250,000 people have been evacuated in France, authorities said on Sunday, while more than 75,000 have been evacuated in Spain and about 30,000 more were ordered to shelter in place.Recommended Stories list of 3 itemslist 1 of 3Spanish police accuse tractor driver of sparking wildfire as blazes spreadlist 2 of 3Wildfires in Spain and France force evacuation of more than 267,000 peoplelist 3 of 3Tour de France final stage shortened as emergency teams tackle wildfiresend of listIn France, fires have ravaged the Cap Ferret peninsula on the Atlantic coast, a popular tourist destination, and spread through areas surrounding the historic city of Bordeaux.“The situation remains very unfavourable,” French Interior Minister Laurent Nunez said after what he described as “another difficult night” for fire crews, who were battling round-the-clock against a blaze that has burned 42,000 hectares (103,784 acres), an area four times the size of Paris.In Spain, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez visited fire-hit areas in Avila, one of three central provinces – alongside Madrid and Toledo – where more than 45,000 hectares (111,000 acres) have burned.“We still have some difficult hours ahead,” Sanchez said on Sunday, though the night had been “very positive in terms of bringing the flames under control”.Pope Leo IV, in his Sunday prayers, expressed solidarity with those affected by the “devastating” fires in Spain and France and called on people to pray for them and for first responders.Flames creep towards BordeauxScientists say climate change is making extreme weather events more frequent and intense. Coming at the height of the summer holiday season, the fires in France and Spain were fuelled by woodland parched to tinder by successive heatwaves and a lack of rain since May.The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) has said that last month was the hottest June in Western Europe on record and the second-warmest globally.France’s fire – one of the nation’s biggest since World War II – has produced an unprecedented “pyrocumulonimbus”, a giant fire cloud that creates its own winds and lightning, which in turn spark further blazes, said the National Firefighters Federation of France (FNSPF).“It’s a David-versus-Goliath scenario… 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 the emergency, his office said.Some 2,500 firefighters, 1,500 military personnel and about 1,200 police have been deployed to tackle the blaze in the Gironde region, where the fires are most concentrated. The fires have destroyed at least 240 homes, many of them in the village of Le Porge, and were advancing towards the wine region city of Bordeaux.Bordeaux Mayor Thomas Cazenave said the fire was “at the gates of the metropolitan area”, about 15km (9 miles) away at its closest point.The city, home to 268,000 people, is not currently facing evacuation, Cazenave said.The blaze has injured 84 firefighters, 10 of whom have been evacuated, according to the latest situation report, published on Sunday by the prefecture.‘It looked like the apocalypse’Evacuations were also carried out on Sunday in Spain’s Valencia region.A man was killed on Saturday in a wildfire in Manises, a Valencia suburb, marking Spain’s first recorded death in the current fires.Under the European Union’s civil protection mechanism, Greece and Italy have each sent two Canadair firefighting aircraft to Spain, while Portugal has deployed more than 100 military personnel along with equipment.Two more planes will arrive “as soon as possible” from Turkiye, the Spanish Interior Ministry said on X.Sanchez, the prime minister, said his government would declare a civil protection emergency on Tuesday for the central provinces hit by the wildfires, unlocking additional recovery funding.Weather forecasters warn that another heatwave could hit Europe, with temperatures reaching 40 degrees Celsius (104F) in some areas, further complicating firefighting efforts.Evacuees in both countries have been told they will not be allowed back to their towns and villages until the fires are brought under control.“It looked like the apocalypse. You couldn’t see anything. Everything was covered in ash,” said Rocio Dominguez, who evacuated with her dog, Simba, from Chapineria, west of Madrid.“We don’t know when we get to the town if we’ll have half the house burned down or we’ll have it intact, or we won’t have a house. All the clothes, all the memories, everything.”Italy, too, was facing its own fires.More than 400 tourists and beachgoers were evacuated by sea near the town of Peschici in the southern Puglia region, with 300 more expected to be rescued, the coastguard said.