British families are evacuated from Bordeaux hotel at 3.30am as wildfires sweep across France and Spain

Hundreds of holidaymakers were woken from their beds in the early hours of this morning as hotels on the outskirts of Bordeaux were forced to evacuate guests due to the raging wildfire.Families staying at the Holiday Inn in Mérignac, just north of Bordeaux Airport, were given a 3.30am wake-up call by staff who told them that smoke billowing across from the fires raging 20-miles away in the Cap Ferret peninsula meant the hotel was having to close.Bleary eyed guests – many with young children – traipsed down to reception to pay off their bill before fleeing the area.Among them were Britons Martin and Nicola Smith from Jersey who were holidaying with six other relatives, including daughter Erin, 20 and two-year-old granddaughter Arabella.They had caught the ferry to Saint-Malo on Friday and driven five hours south to Bordeaux en route to spend ten days at a villa in Aude, near the Pyrenees.Martin, 55, who works at a school in St Clement, Jersey, said: 'It's not great to be honest but what can you do?'I think I'd rather know if there's a risk than not. I did ask the receptionist at the hotel if we were safe when we booked in on Friday night and she said that we were.'But apparently everywhere is being evacuated because of all the smoke drifting across to Bordeaux from the fire. Thick black smoke covers the sky near Cap Ferret near Bordeaux in south-west France Emergency service vehicles rush to the fire as other vehicles flee in the opposite direction Martin and Nicola Smith with daughter, Erin, 20 and granddaughter, 2 from St Clement, Jersey, were evacuated from Holiday Inn nr Bordeaux airport'I must admit you could really smell the smoke when we first arrived, there was a kind of haze in the air.'We don't know what we're going to do now. We're all in two cars and had hoped to head down to Aude later today… just not at four in the morning.'The villa won't be ready yet so we'll have to stop somewhere on route. Luckily, the area where we're heading is away from the fire and the smoke so we're hoping the holiday won't be interrupted. It can only get better anyway!'Nicola, 49, added: 'We were all fast asleep when a member of hotel staff knocked on the door about 3.30am and said that we were having to evacuate.'It was a shock to the system and quite dramatic but I'd been getting alerts on my phone all night by the local French authorities warning about other areas nearby being evacuated. I thought we'd be ok here as it's right next to Bordeaux Airport.'We'd been in the car for five hours yesterday and now have another three-hour drive. I'm just looking forward to finally being able to relax.'Other guests scrambling out of the hotel this morning included a French family who were pictured packing their cases and pet golden labrador into the back of their car.Bordeaux-Mérignac Airport remained open as usual, though an Air France worker said: 'We are short-staffed as a lot of my colleagues live in areas that have had to be evacuated due to the wildfire. A family evacuates from the Holiday Inn near Bordeaux airport as a labrador sits in the car boot A man watches an ambulance driving on a roundabout as grey from the blaze clouds the sky Emergency responders stand next to their vehicle looking at the fire which illuminates the sky 'At the moment flights are coming in and leaving as normal but the situation could change at any moment. The areas that have been evacuated are very close to the airport.'More than 40,000 people have fled Cap Ferret over the last four days due to the 'apocalyptic' wildfire ravaging the peninsula, a millionaire's holiday paradise often compared to the Hamptons in America.Mass evacuations have been taking place since Wednesday – including by boat – as the inferno burns through 10,000 hectares of forest, leaving luxury villas in charred ruins.Meanwhile, in Spain the government has declared a state of emergency in the Madrid region, where more than 10,000 people have been evacuated in recent days.Emergency services said alert messages had been sent to people in Aldea del Fresno, a town west of Madrid, ordering them to leave.It is the first time such a measure has been taken due to a wildfire.European wildfires threatening Madrid and French resorts have become impossible to control in some areas forcing hundreds of thousands, including British holidaymakers, to flee their homes. In Southwestern France and Spain it is estimated 200,000 people have been evacuated as the fires have become 'out of control'.The fire in Madrid is said to put at risk a Nasa and European Space Agency communications complex, one of three comprising a network studying deep space.Exactly 25,000 people have been evacuated from the region, while 20,000 more have been placed in lockdown, Madrid officials have said. About 141,000 people fled their homes in Gironde and Landes in France, while 60,000 were forced to evacuate their houses in Spain, the countries' respective Interior ministries confirmed.Dozens of firefighters have been injured but no deaths have been reported in either country, authorities have said.Meanwhile, the Madrid regional government's emergency management chief, Carlos Novillo, said the blaze near the Spanish capital was 'at its peak' and was beyond capacity for firefighters to tame.The inferno is currently making its way towards the municipalities of Fresnedillas de la Oliva and Robledo de Chavela, just several dozen kilometres from the outskirts of the city.The last time Spain declared the same level of emergency alert was during a massive nationwide power blackout last year.Two major blazes near Madrid combined into one single inferno which quickly burned through 11.5 square miles of land by Friday afternoon.A fire in Avila, less than two hours north-west of Madrid, tore through 34 square miles, causing 1,500 people to flee.It comes as the fires are being fanned by a heatwave with temperatures expected to hit highs of 39C (102F) in parts of Spain.