Photos: Wildfires in France drive 250,000 people from their homes

A raging wildfire in southwest France has forced the evacuation of 55,000 more people, taking the total forced out of their homes to 220,000 in one region alone, as the flames creep ever closer to the city of Bordeaux. Authorities in the Gironde region, where Bordeaux is located, issued overnight evacuation orders on Sunday for five more localities southwest of the historic city. Gusting winds fed the flames overnight, accelerating the spread of the fire, which has been burning out of control since midweek, the authorities statement said. The Gironde prefect also ordered the partial closure of a major highway heading southwest from Bordeaux. The city's mayor said the fire is still at the gates of the metropolitan area, having advanced to about 15km from Bordeaux at its closest point. A second fire burning further south in the Landes region has also forced the evacuation of 30,000 people this week, taking the total driven out of their homes by the blazes to more than 250,000. In neighbouring Spain, authorities have evacuated 70,000 people this week because of fires west of Madrid. French authorities said more than 220,000 people have been evacuated from the main wildfire raging in the southwest. The Gironde fire has now burned 42,000 hectares of land, making it one of the country's biggest devastations of land since World War II. The French government ordered 500 more soldiers to the wildfire zone in the southwest, bringing the total number deployed to 1,500.