LÈGE-CAP-FERRET, France (AFP) — Europe’s wildfire crisis forced more than 80,000 people to flee for safety Friday, as holidaymakers boarded boats to escape fires on one French peninsula and Spanish officials ordered mass evacuations in towns near Madrid.

Both Spain and France called for European Union help as flames whipped up by strong winds and boosted by drought raced through tinder-dry forests.

France ordered the evacuation of 40,000 people on the upscale Cap Ferret peninsula south of Bordeaux.