What French meteorologists have called a "heat apocalypse" has spread from the Gironde region to the Landes region.

Around 10,000 have left their homes and holiday homes in the popular summer season area on the Atlantic coast.

On Wednesday, Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin announced that France will receive help in fighting the fire from Sweden and also Italy.

Climbs onto the roofs

In the town of Belin-Beliet, the municipality urged residents to take "the animals you can take with you and pack some belongings" and then leave.

In nearby Hostens, Camille Delay, 30, her partner and their son took the two cats and the family's chickens and waited for rescue.

- Everyone in the whole village climbed up on their roofs to see what was happening, she told Reuters, describing how the smoke spread.

The fire service on site describes the fire as "capricious" in part because the extent and intensity creates its own wind system that affects the spread.

Swedish aircraft water bombs

Sweden will send two planes to waterbomb the forest fires.

These are so-called scooping aircraft, which can carry upwards of 3,000 liters of water in their floats.

According to the Norwegian Agency for Community Protection and Preparedness, MSB, the aircraft must depart from the Brittany region.

- The area in question in Brittany is one of several hard hit in France and we received indications early on Wednesday that a request could be made, says Per Velandia, head of unit at MSB's operational department, in a press release.

The aircraft in question were used earlier this summer to extinguish forest fires in the Czech Republic.

MSB has a total of four scooping aircraft available.

See previous reporting on how several of the fires in southern Europe are suspected to be arson:

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One of the local firefighters turned out to be a pyromaniac: "It's a real betrayal".

Watch the villagers tell the story in the clip.

Photo: EBU