Imagine being on your summer holiday and being told to leave now. By road if you can, by boat if you can’t. That’s exactly what’s happening on France’s stunning Cap Ferret peninsula this morning, as a monster wildfire tears through the south-west.

It’s absolute chaos down on the south-west coast, and it’s getting worse.

French authorities have ordered the complete evacuation of the entire Cap Ferret peninsula, that’s Lège-Cap Ferret with hundreds of people actually having to escape by boat.

cbinews.tv reports that it’s a last-ditch move as firefighters battle a wildfire that’s been raging in the Gironde for days. This thing started on Tuesday in Saumos and it just won’t stop - overnight it kept burning and has now swallowed up 8,700 hectares. That’s about 21,500 acres. Gone.

Gironde prefect Sophie Brocas ordered the final phase of the evacuation early this morning. People are being told to get out via the main D106 towards Bordeaux, but between 07:00 and 10:00 local time, boats were laid on from four different piers to get people off. Boats. That’s how serious this is.

And this isn’t an isolated pocket. On Thursday alone, around 20,000 people - many of them tourists in campsites on the peninsula had already been moved. The public are being told bluntly: do not go to the affected areas.

It’s not just Gironde either. Down the Atlantic coast in the Landes, around Biscarrosse, another major fire that only started Thursday afternoon has forced more than 23,000 people out of their homes. We’re talking 18,000 in Biscarrosse and 5,000 in Parentis-en-Born - homes, campsites, even a nursing home and a summer camp. On Friday morning, the centre of Biscarrosse itself was being evacuated.

President Emmanuel Macron said on Thursday night the situation is very tense, especially in Gironde. He’s asked the EU for help, and aircraft are now coming in from Croatia, Portugal, the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Significant resources are on the ground, with more air and ground reinforcements on the way.

Tragically, we already know two firefighters died on Tuesday tackling a blaze near Bordeaux airport. Thankfully, no further casualties were reported overnight, and officials say homes in evacuated zones will be monitored to stop any looting. The evacuation from La Porge on Thursday night was said to have happened calmly.

And then there’s Spain.

While France burns, Spain has declared a national emergency. Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska made the call as wildfires burn out of control not far from Madrid - at Villa del Prado and San Martin de Valdeiglesias in the Madrid region, and at Burgohondo in Avila.

An update on Friday morning described both fires as out of control though their spread has been limited in recent hours. Villages like Aldea del Fresno have been evacuated.

It’s a terrifying summer for Europe’s Atlantic coast.

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