Tens of thousands flee fires in France, blazes merge outside Madrid

Tens of thousands of people fled wildfires in southwest France by car and boat on Friday, and Spain declared a national emergency as huge blazes merged outside Madrid and searing heat left tinder-dry conditions across the region.

French authorities ordered the total evacuation of the Cap Ferret peninsula, a tourism hotspot on its Atlantic Coast. A third fire was on the verge of joining two fires that had merged outside Madrid, government officials said....