The fourth heat wave of this summer was expected to begin on Wednesday, raising temperatures in the area to 40C.

Similar temperatures are expected in Spain.

Dozens of communities remain threatened by wildfires that forced more than 70,000 people to evacuate their homes over the past week, although many have already been allowed to return.

The Madrid region has been especially affected, but the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, said that although very difficult hours and days lay ahead, light was beginning to appear “at the end of the tunnel.”

In neighboring Portugal, 400 firefighters were fighting a large fire on three active fronts in the eastern area of ​​Guarda.

The French city of Bordeaux is not currently threatened, according to authorities, even though one of the wildfires that burned on Monday occurred just 15 kilometers (9 miles) from the city’s outskirts.

But Commander Rémi Lassoureille, who leads the firefighting response in the Gironde region, remains concerned.

“We are afraid of the impact on Bordeaux and the metropolitan area,” he said. The air quality in the city also deteriorated greatly.

“On Sunday afternoon everything started to clear out,” a tourist from Essex told the BBC, adding that the air was “really full of smoke” and chunks of ash. “People were staying home, so it was eerie and very sad.”