Inside the frantic battle to save France from the flames as the country’s most severe wildfires on record spread

The numbers alone are extraordinary; 250,000 people evacuated, more than 40,000 hectares burned, hundreds of homes destroyed. France’s president Emmanuel Macron has described the wildfire crisis as the most severe the country has faced since World War 2.In Lacanau, a commune of around 5,000 people some 30 miles from Bordeaux,The Independent rode into the devastated woodlands with volunteers who guide firemen brought in from across the country to stop the blazes spreading further. The unprecedented fires and extreme heat have already wrought havoc on the nearby tourist hotspot the Cap Ferret peninsula, with widespread evacuations across the Gironde region. On Tuesday, as temperatures soared to 33C, exhausted locals were returning for another day of scouting fires aboard pickup trucks and carrying buckets of water into the woods in a desperate attempt to protect what remained of the verdant landscape.“It’s a war against the fire,” said Pao Borecka, one of the hundreds of volunteers working 15-hour days to help save their community, a picturesque surfing spot nestled into the woods along the coastline.“Each person has their part to play,” the 31 year-old painter said. “My boyfriend told me don’t go, and I told him that ‘No, I can’t just stay in my house waiting like that. Everything is burning.“The first few days we were around 15 volunteers. Now we are 200. The first days, it was too touchy. People were afraid ... Friends called me and said ‘we’re going inside [the forest], do you want to come? And now each day it is more and more and more.”An aircraft flies over the wildfire on the Camp de Souge military training ground, near the town of Martignas-sur-Jalle, Gironde (AFP/Getty)The fires have torn through a region already battered by a blisteringly hot and dry summer. Firefighters hoped to take advantage of a comparative lull in the heat but a new heatwave is imminent with 38C forecast for Wednesday. Many of the helpers had eyes reddened and voices broken by the thick smoke in the air, or were patching up burns and blisters with plasters upon plasters while huge columns of smoke continued to billow just over a mile away. As dozens risked their own health to tackle the fires, others turned out to prepare and hand out meals at a distribution centre housing people who have lost their homes.Hundreds of homes have been destroyed as the unprecedented fires have spread. Pictured is a burned out residence in Le Porge, Gironde (AFP/Getty)In a WhatsApp group of nearly 600 locals, volunteers were constantly sharing coordinates to new break-out spots across the region on Tuesday, as tourists were ordered to leave.Mathias Monseigne, an 18-year-old from Lacanau, was among those riding on the back of pickup trucks through the morning and into the evening to aide his neighbours.“My dad has a restaurant opposite the lake in the fire and we had to close it.. Everyone has been evacuated, but we live here, so with some friends and the pick-up we go again to the fire and try out best for the firefighters.”He said he had been doing runs into the burnt out regions every day since the wildfires broke out on 22 July. “And again, tomorrow, until the fire is out,” he said, blackened by carbon from the fires.Firefighters battle a blaze outside Lanton, around 30 miles south of Lacanau (AP)Large wildfires, as in Gironde, are capable of creating their own microclimate, with rising heat and smoke forming towering storm clouds. So-called ‘fire clouds’ can produce strong winds and lightning which can then stoke new fires. “We fight against a monster,” said Eric Brocardi of the French firefighters' association on Tuesday, adding that such phenomena were likely to become more frequent.But despite warnings that the fires in the region could last months, the spirit in Gironde is strong. Aurelien Amzallag, from Lacanau, told The Independent he had been working five hours a day to help extinguish fires on the frontier of the town.“It’s exhausting,” he said. “It’s mentally exhausting, too. This isn’t just news. This is right in your face. Lacanau residents carried buckets of water into the devastated landscape to help put out fires themselves (James Reynolds / The Independent)“It’s also brought a lot of people together, which is really nice. A lot of people that I’ve seen at bars, or just working in restaurants, all of a sudden you’re with them and you team up for two, three hours and you just become this team and it’s really powerful. So it’s both really sad and beautiful in a way.”Manon, a pharmacist who was handing out prepared food to refugees, firefighters and soldiers in town, said she volunteered with her mother, Sonia, at the kitchen in town when the fires started. She said they were seeing around 200 people a day arriving in need of food, a figure that has steadily increased over the last week.Inside the centre for displaced people, children’s board games were spread out on camping beds set up in rows. Outside, the scene was alive with people hauling crates of food back out to volunteers in the forest.Mathias Monseigne, 18, was among a group of volunteers supporting fire crews at the Pont du Hourbiel in Lacanau again yesterday. He said he would continue until the fire is out (James Reynolds / The Independent)Pao said the community has had to organise rotating shift patterns as so many people have now turned out to help that they risk blocking the roads with their cars if they all come at the same time. She said she stops helping when she has trouble breathing or when she becomes exhausted.With President Macron urging the hundreds of firefighters battling the fires to “stay strong”, the next few days could prove pivotal. Forecaster Meteo France expected the heat to peak on Wednesday, but added that the duration of the latest in a series of summer heatwaves “will be determined in the coming days”.“Dry and very hot weather is contributing to an increased risk of forest fires,” a spokesperson said. “All regions face a high fire risk on Wednesday, the hottest and driest day of the week.”