Sawt Falasteen - Thousands crowd shelters as wildfires force exodus in France, Spain

The blazes have destroyed houses, displaced people on a massive scale and triggered one of the largest peacetime civilian evacuation operations ever carried out in France, with major fires still burning in both countries.

One person was killed in eastern Spain and fresh evacuations were ordered around the French city of Bordeaux and the Spanish capital Madrid as authorities warned of another difficult night.

Families slept on camp beds in exhibition halls and gymnasiums after fleeing walls of smoke and flames that swept through forests and tourist areas, leaving residents and holidaymakers uncertain if they would be able to return.

"We were told: 'You have to evacuate'," said Frederic Tavitian, 70, who spent the night at Bordeaux's exhibition centre, converted into a vast emergency shelter.

"We saw columns of smoke, like a volcano about to erupt."

Around 5,000 to 6,000 displaced people spent the night at the centre.

According to the Gironde fire service, the blaze generated a rare "pyrocumulonimbus" cloud, creating its own winds and whirlwinds and making it "erratic and unmanageable", firefighter Captain Nicolas Braz told AFP.

Spanish authorities meanwhile ordered new evacuations near Toledo, southwest of Madrid.

"Today we are rather more pessimistic than we were yesterday," Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska told reporters on Saturday. "The weather conditions have not helped at all," he added.

- 'Devastation' -

Overstretched firefighters battling around the clock for days have struggled to contain the infernos, which claimed the lives of two French firefighters near Bordeaux this week.

A separate wildfire near the eastern Spanish city of Valencia killed one person Saturday before firefighters brought it under control.

France initially hustled 197,000 people from areas around popular vacation spot Bordeaux -- one of its biggest-ever peacetime evacuations, though 3,000 were later allowed to return.

"It is devastation," said Matthieu Plessis, 40, as he returned to find the smouldering ruins of his house in Gironde.

"It was still there yesterday evening. It burned during the night."

A further 55,000 were ordered to leave late Saturday. The total evacuated from Gironde alone topped 200,000, authorities said.

In Spain, where 60,000 people were evacuated from villages west of Madrid, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said the priority was "to save lives".

At least eight municipalities near Toledo were later ordered to evacuate.

In the Spanish town of Brunete, west of Madrid, mayor Mar Nicolas told AFP she was "very worried".

"Every year there are fires, but this one has been tremendous," she said. "It is a catastrophe."

- Tinderbox conditions -

The fires in France and Spain advanced rapidly through tinderbox conditions worsened by successive heatwaves since May.

Scientists say global warming is increasing droughts and causing weather emergencies to become more extreme and more frequent. Europe is the fastest-warming continent due to climate change.

Both countries received EU assistance, including firefighting aircraft from other member states.

France deployed 1,500 soldiers to support the firefighting effort near Bordeaux and on Saturday used an A400M military transport aircraft to drop water and fire retardant on the blaze.

Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu said a total of 1,400 firefighters were tackling the blazes.

Local authorities set up emergency shelters in schools and gymnasiums for tourists and residents left wondering what they would return to.

Nuala Kelly, a 75-year-old Irish tourist, said she had never seen anything like this.

"Never, never, never, never, never, and I've travelled all over the world and been in all sorts of situations," she told AFP at Bordeaux's vast exhibition centre now housing thousands of people.

Olivier Stewart, a 38-year-old Frenchman who had to leave the village of Merignac with his wife and young children, said the children were "the most stressed".

"They think the fire is going to burn down the house, but we're coping," he said.

Sunday's final stage of the Tour de France was shortened after the interior ministry said security personnel assigned to the race were needed on the fire front instead.

- 'Record' area burnt -

Smoke plumes from the French and Spanish fires were beginning to merge in the atmosphere, according to Spain's Aemet weather agency.

Fires across France have burned nearly 98,000 hectares, a "historic record", Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez said.

In southwestern France alone, the flames have consumed more than 32,000 hectares, more than three times the area of Paris, and destroyed at least 100 buildings.

The blazes west of Madrid have burned up to 25,000 hectares, according to Spain's interior ministry.

Two of the three major wildfires there have merged and are threatening to join another blaze, raising fears of a vast inferno just kilometres from the Spanish capital.

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J.AbuShaban--SF-PST