Meanwhile, in France, the AFP news agency reported that 10,000 tourists were among those evacuated.
France has been paying tribute to the two firefighters who died earlier in the week. Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez posted photos from an event that took place on Wednesday – the day after their deaths were announced.
He said the moment was filled with “immense emotion” as he expressed “infinite gratitude” and “unwavering support” to their families.
The Gironde region remains under a red alert, with some leisure sites in exposed forest areas to be closed on Thursday afternoon and evening.
Yassmina de Freitas, 19, who lives in the coastal town of Le Porge, said she noticed smoke and the smell of burning at lunchtime on Wednesday.
By the afternoon “ash… [and] half-burned tree bark” were falling, the sky was “very dark” and the smoke was getting “thicker and thicker”.
At around 20:00 local time (19:00 BST), her family was evacuated by law enforcement and taken to a gymnasium in a neighbouring town. They had to leave two of their cats and four chickens behind as they could not be found in the flurry to leave.
She said she could not sleep at all and was waking up every hour to check the fire’s progress.
“I could see the number of hectares burned rising steadily,” she said.
Further evacuations took place on Thursday morning on the Lège-Cap-Ferret peninsula, south of Le Porge.
