Inside the frantic battle to save France from the flames as the country’s most severe wildfires on record spread

The numbers alone are extraordinary: 250,000 people evacuated, more than 40,000 hectares burned, hundreds of homes destroyed. France’s president Emmanuel Macron has described the wildfire crisis as the most severe the country has faced since the Second World War.

In Lacanau, a commune of around 5,000 people some 30 miles from Bordeaux,The Independent rode into the devastated woodlands with volunteers who guide firemen brought in from across the country to stop the blazes spreading further.