Irish man James Halford says his family's long-awaited holiday quickly turned into a nightmare as wildfires tore through southwest France.
James Halford, his wife Clarissa, their children Ryan, 12, and Lara, 10, and James's 76-year-old mother-in-law, Mieko were holidaying in France when the campsite they were staying in was suddenly evacuated.
James told RTE, "We were literally just sitting down for dinner when this shrill alarm went off."
"There was a man going around with a megaphone banging on doors shouting, 'Get out, get out, get out!' It was quite scary ... We could smell and then see the smoke," he continued.
The family had to drive through the night, where they then slept on judo mats in a sports hall.
The following day, they were fortunate to be offered a room in the home of a local English-speaking teacher. However, the wildfires were advancing on them as James explained: "We were about to go to bed in the teacher's house when everyone’s phones started beeping again: Alert! Get out, get out, get out!" So now we had to drive through the night again. I was looking at Google Maps, thinking 'We can't get out of here now. We've got the Bordeaux fires to the north, the Biscarrosse fires to the south. We were kind of trapped between them."
The report continued, as James described their journey to a new evacuation centre where a stranger offered them a place to stay.
Speaking on the stressful experience, James said that it has "restored my faith in humanity."
"What this whole thing has really shown me is how kind people are. Everywhere we went, the local people were out in force and were volunteering, helping and inviting people back to their homes," he told RTE.
