"British Family Forced to Sleep on Cardboard After Evacuating From France Wildfires Fueled by Today's Scorching 42°C Heat"

A BRITISH family has been forced to sleep on cardboard boxes on the beach after wildfires turned their French holiday into a nightmare.

After being evacuated from the seaside town of Biscarrosse, the family were left to sleep on cardboard boxes salvaged from a recycling bin and later a tent.

Melissa and her family were left sleeping on cardboard boxes on a beach after being evacuated due to the wildfires Credit: SWNS Melissa and her family were later able to sleep in a supermarket tent in their friend’s garden Credit: SWNS Melissa’s holiday to France with husband Sunny, 42, her daughter 14, and her brother and sister turned into a nightmare Credit: SWNS Melissa with husband Sunny, a police officer

Mum Melissa Sood, 33, was visiting her grandmother with her husband Sunny, 42, their 14-year-old daughter and her brother and sister, when broke out across France.

Firefighters battled to that has destroyed 42,000 hectares under control overnight, amid from Meteo-France that temperatures could peak at 42C today.

Melissa and her family are unable to fly back to their home in Basingstoke because the roads to the nearest airport in are blocked.

They also cannot return to Melissa’s grandma’s house to fetch their house keys due to the evacuation order.

Firefighters battle a blaze outside Lanton, during wildfires in southwestern France Credit: AP Fires rage near Le Porge, in southwestern France Credit: EPA

Melissa said her family were on their way back from the beach last Thursday when they first saw large plumes of smoke rising but “didn’t think much of it”.

They were sitting down to dinner at a local restaurant that night when police told them they needed to evacuate.

“We started to run back to the house and there were water planes flying over, and the air was just black,” she said.

The family raced to collect their passports and went to a school being used as an evacuation centre, but they were all turned away except Melissa’s 83-year-old grandma because they were not residents.

With nowhere to go they pulled some cardboard boxes from a bin and tried to get some sleep on the grass near the beach.

The family have been sleeping in a tent in a friend’s garden in Sanguinet since Friday, but have no blow up mattresses and only a few blankets.

“The fire looked like a scene from a disaster movie, it was terrible,” she told Talk to the Press.

“We started to hear explosions, from the gas cannisters in people’s barbecues, it was really eerie.

“My daughter was really scared.

“Our house was evacuated; we had to pull some cardboard boxes out of a recycling bin and use them to try and sleep on the grass.”

Melissa said there were no hotels available to stay at, and all the shops were shut leaving them with just the clothes on their backs.

The family do not know when they will be allowed to return to Melissa’s grandma’s home – or even if it is still standing.

Sunny, a police officer, has contacted the British Embassy, but since they cannot reach it in Paris they are not able to access assistance.

“There’s absolutely no help for people like us, camping in gardens,” Sunny, a police officer said.

“Somebody needs to take ownership, either the insurance company, the British Embassy, or French officials,” he said.

Wildfires have led to the evacuation of about 220,000 people across France, with a fire burning in the Landes area west of Bordeaux razing 42,000 hectares.

French President said France was experiencing “completely unprecedented” wildfires, posing the “toughest since World War Two”.