Raining ash and a tower of black smoke: Families flee ‘apocalyptic’ wildfires on the road out of Lège-Cap Ferret

Driving away from her home in the wealthy resort town of Lège-Cap Ferret, Marion Girault-Rime was suddenly overwhelmed by the smell of smoke.

She was left speechless as cinders blew across her car windscreen like “raining ash”, with bright-red flames erupting and a towering pillar of black smoke billowing 20km in the distance. The scene was “frightening and spectacular”, she says.