Hundreds flee French peninsula by boat to escape wildfire

Firefighters operate next to flames at a residential area during a wildfire near Lege Cap Ferret, southwestern France on July 23, 2026. [AFP]

Hundreds of people fled by boat from a peninsula in western France on Friday, as authorities ordered it evacuated in the face of a rapidly advancing wildfire.

Boats have ferried more than 400 people so far from the Cap Ferret peninsula that stretches along France's Atlantic coast west of the city of Bordeaux, city authorities said.

The fire raging near one of France's prized wine regions has so far devoured an area roughly one and a half the size of Manhattan, and is just one of several blazes raging in the country in the middle of the summer vacation season.

French authorities have ordered thousands of tourists on the southwestern Atlantic coast out of campsites and holiday homes, as firefighters backed by water-bombing planes raced to control the blazes.

France has invoked the European Union's civil protection mechanism to ask for help, President Emmanuel Macron said, warning the crisis remained "very intense."

The total area of land burnt so far this year in EU countries is the second largest on record, according to satellite data from the European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS).c