Alva Review-Courier -

PARIS (AP) — Firefighters battled wildfires raging out of control in France and Spain on Sunday as Europe wilted under an unusually extreme heat wave that authorities in Madrid blamed for hundreds of deaths.

Two huge blazes that have consumed pine forests for six days in southwestern France have forced the evacuation of some 14,000 people, and led authorities shut down access to Europe's tallest sand dune, the much-visited Dune du Pilat. Water-dropping planes zig-zagged the area, as flames lapped at the edge of a farm field, and smoke blanketed the skyline above a mass of singed trees, in imag...