Paris (France) (AFP) - Here are the main events related to the fires raging in Europe.

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).

The blazes are breaking out faster because of the current European drought, made more severe by human-caused climate change, scientists from the World Weather Attribution group said in a study published this week.

EU planes

The European Union said it was deploying four specialised water-bombing planes to Spain and three to France to help fight the fires raging in the countries.

Both countries requested the aircraft through the European Union’s Civil Protection Mechanism, the bloc’s system for coordinating disaster assistance among member states.

Spain fires about to merge

Two fires raging west of Madrid are about to merge “becoming a single blaze advancing towards Navas del Rey,” a town some 50 kilometres from the Spanish capital, Francisco Martin, a top regional official, told reporters.

Earlier, Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska said firefighters were battling to keep fires from converging.

Care homes evacuated

More than 430 elderly people and people with disabilities were evacuated from five care homes in the Madrid region.

40,000 evacuated in France

Some 40,000 people have been evacuated in southwestern France due to a wildfire that has ravaged more than 10,000 hectares (25,000 acres) and is now “the largest fire of the season,” Interior Minister Laurent Nunez told AFP.

“A total of 80 homes have burnt, around 50 of which have been completely destroyed,” he said, adding there were no casualties reported so far.

32 fires burning in France

France currently has 32 active wildfires of varying intensity, the interior minister said.

“We have passed the threshold of 50,000 hectares that have burned since January 1 of this year,” said Nunez, adding that the figure was nearly three times that of last year.

Two fires creep toward Madrid

Two wildfires burning less than 100 kilometres (60 miles) from Madrid remained uncontained and out of control, regional authorities said.

“Meteorological conditions, fundamentally the wind, will complicate firefighting operations this Friday,” the Madrid regional government said in a post on X.

‘Dramatic’ situation

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said his government had deployed “all available resources” to fight the fires.

“We are living through a dramatic situation, not only in various Spanish provinces but also in regions of neighbouring countries,” he wrote on X.

Hundreds flee by boat in France

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

The blaze had devoured an area nearly twice the size of Manhattan by Friday morning.

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