The mayor of Bordeaux has said he is preparing for “all eventualities” as one of the many wildfires ravaging France is now 15 kilometers (nine miles) from the southwestern city.

“We are preparing to accommodate large numbers of people in case new evacuations are ordered,” said Thomas Cazenave.

Gironde firefighters face an “unprecedented” situation fighting a fire that “has a life of its own,” said Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez.

Some 220,000 people have been evacuated in France and more than 100,000 in Spain, where fires are burning “out of control” west of Madrid.

Another intense heat wave on Tuesday could further hamper firefighting efforts.

Jerome Steffe, mayor of Cestas, a town south of Bordeaux, told the BBC that this “will be the fire of the century.”

He described how 17,000 residents were evacuated from his city overnight as the fire worsened two days ago. So far, he said, the region has burned 42,000 hectares (103,000 acres) of land and 240 homes destroyed.

“In my city the situation is really catastrophic,” he added.

And although the fire is no longer advancing as quickly, he stated that his teams “have only won a small battle” and stressed that the risk of embers flying or a sudden change in wind direction persists.

“We put all our energy into creating protective firewalls,” he explained, but admitted that “we are all scared by this situation.”

French Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu warned that the country “is going through an unprecedented fire season.”

In a post on X on Monday, Lecornu wrote that “116,085 hectares [286,852 acres] have already burned and since January 13,566 fire starts have been recorded.

The minister revealed that nine out of 10 fires “are caused by man and the majority arise from carelessness: a cigarette butt, a barbecue, work carried out without precaution.”

But he also stated that “not all of these fires are accidents” and “some are deliberately set,” adding that since July 6 there have been 162 arrests.

President Emmanuel Macron is visiting some of the areas devastated by the Gironde fires to show his support for firefighters and other teams responding to the flames.

There are also forest fires in other French regions, including Var and Landes, and also in Upper Corsica, on the island of Corsica.