Reality television personality Georgia Toffolo and her husband, James Watt, escaped the wildfire-ravaged Cap Ferret region of France by boat just hours before a large-scale evacuation was ordered. The couple, who were holidaying with Watt's children, left the popular tourist destination on Thursday, the same day they began smelling smoke and seeing ash fall.
"We got everyone packed up and we left by boat because the road was closed on Thursday," Toffolo shared on her Instagram Stories. "We stayed at the airport on Thursday night and our flights were already booked early on Friday morning."
Wildfires that began on Tuesday in Saumos, Gironde, have forced more than 40,000 people to flee the Cap Ferret peninsula and another 23,000 from Biscarrosse. The fires have consumed approximately 10,000 hectares (nearly 25,000 acres) of land and destroyed luxury villas. The area, located near Bordeaux, is a popular destination often compared to the Hamptons in the United States.
Toffolo stated that the situation escalated quickly as the wind changed direction. "It was really quite distressing to see because it just increased and increased," she said. "We were very lucky we left a few hours before the island peninsula of Cap Ferret did a big evacuation in the early hours of that morning."
Meanwhile, in Spain, a state of emergency was declared in the Madrid region, where over 10,000 people have been evacuated due to wildfires. Emergency services sent alerts to residents of Aldea del Fresno, ordering them to leave, marking the first time such a measure has been taken due to a wildfire in the region. Eighteen firefighting units were working to contain a blaze near Toledo, close to another wildfire that had previously prompted village evacuations.