Wildfires in France drive 250,000 people from their homes and creep toward wine city of Bordeaux

A raging wildfire in southwest France has forced the evacuation of 55,000 people overnight SundayByMARK CARLSON Associated Press, EMMA DA SILVA Associated Press, and JOHN LEICESTER Associated PressLEGE-CAP FERRET, France -- A raging wildfire in southwest France forced the evacuation of 55,000 people overnight Sunday, taking the total forced out of their homes to 220,000 in one region alone as the flames have crept ever closer to the wine region city of Bordeaux.Authorities in the Gironde region, where Bordeaux is located, issued overnight evacuation orders for five more localities southwest of the historic city. In neighboring Spain, authorities oversaw a new round of evacuations because of wildfires in the Valencia region, on the country’s east coast. In total, uncontrolled blazes there and others west of Madrid this week have forced 116,000 people out of their homes.In southwest France, gusting winds fed the flames overnight, accelerating the spread of the fire that has been burning out of control since midweek, the Gironde prefecture said. The area that has burned, much of it pine forests and scrubland made tinder-dry by successive heat waves this year, has grown inexorably, exp...