Two French firefighters die tackling blaze near Bordeaux airport

Also on Tuesday, a huge fire broke out in the south-eastern Var department.

The blaze in the Pontevès commune “is currently out of control and is evolving rapidly”, said the PSFDF volunteer association, which monitors fires across France.

It said 500 firefighters and rescuers had been deployed to contain the fire, and 150 people had already been evacuated.

France has registered nearly 11,000 fires since the beginning of the year, with President Emmanuel Macron saying last week that there had not been so many blazes in the country since World War Two.

Tuesday’s satellite data from the European Forest Fire Information System (Effis) shows that more than 42,000 hectares (103,784 acres) burned in France between January and mid-July, surpassing the previous record set in 2022.

Climate change is driving up temperatures around the world, and Europe is the fastest warming continent, heating up twice as fast as the global average, according to the Copernicus Climate Change Service.

This is causing increased summer heatwaves, greater pressure on Europe’s water supply, and more intense wildfires.

The record-breaking temperatures across Europe this summer have led to major wildfires, most notably in Spain where at least 13 people have been killed.

Some 29,000 hectares of land have been destroyed by a massive wildfire north of the Spanish capital Madrid.