Stunning Video Shows Wildfire Creeping Up as Officials Call Firefight a ‘David Against Goliath’ Battle

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More than 300,000 people have now been evacuated in France and Spain, where a rooftop camera recorded the rapidly advancing flames as a heatwave is expected to descend on the region.

The footage was taken in the town of Navas Del Rey, just west of Madrid, a region that has seen more than 63,000 people evacuated in recent days.

The clip shows a line of flames in the distant hills, sending black smoke billowing into the air, before the video cuts, showing the orange flames close to the mounted camera.

The timestamp on the video, obtained by the Associated Press, showed the fire advanced in roughly three minutes.

In all, more than 300,000 have been evacuated in Spain and France, where the fires have ravaged the southwestern portion of the country outside of Bordeaux, and officials have used helicopters to collect seawater in an effort to stop the fire’s advance.

The firefight — which continued to unfold Tuesday as forecasters predicted a new heatwave was to hit the area — is “like David against Goliath,” one French official said.

The fires in Gironde and the southern part of the country are of “exceptional intensity,” according to Lt. Colonel Eric Brocardi, a spokesman for the National Federation of Firefighters of France.

Four firefighters have been killed, Brocardi added in his Tuesday remarks.

“The fire is big. It’s like David against Goliath,” he said, adding, “[Firefighters] say that we are little, but we have a good strategy.”

Meanwhile, in Spain, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said officials are “beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel in the fight against wildfires,” though he warned of “complex days and nights ahead.”

The wildfires show “the climate alarm is blaring, from every direction,” United Nations climate chief Simon Stiell said on Tuesday, according to reports.

“Around the world, climate-driven disasters are reaching nightmare proportions, as the costs of humanity’s addiction to burning coal, oil and gas keep spiraling upwards,” he added, noting, “With the mercury set to soar again this week, the awful costs of this climate crisis – both human and economic – are now reaching national emergency levels.”

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