After an hour-long session of conquering splash park attractions where the average age was way below mine, my sunny afternoon gained an unlikely orange shade. I arrived at Lake Lacanau in south-western France on a cloudless Friday morning. The headline-making wildfires, affecting a nearby Gironde area only 15 miles to the south, could already be seen in the form of smoke rising from the other side of the lake.

By 1pm, the smoke turned into a dark mass, covering the sun and turning the beach into what looked like an apocalyptic film set. With phones stuck to their ears, people wandered around anxiously, calling their loved ones to discuss the situation. Others, including myself, took out their cameras to capture the phenomenon, with one photograph ending up in The New York Times.

"Everyone at the lake, wake up," my sister messaged our WhatsApp group chat from the nearby seaside resort of Lacanau Océan. She told us to go home and pack, as we might be evacuated soon.

On our way back, cycling through the dense pine forest, everything was quiet. The only thing I could hear was the cicadas. I wondered whether the wildlife could sense what was happening, as ashes drifted down onto my head. Knowing that the same beautifully green pine trees and the same harmonic cicadas were all burning just a few miles away squeezed my stomach with anxiety.

By the evening, a thunderstorm cooled the air, hopefully helping the hundreds of soldiers and firefighters battling to contain the blaze. But the fire had already scorched more than 10,000 hectares of forest and forced more than 190,000 people to evacuate their homes and holiday accommodation across the Gironde region.

Despite not being evacuated ourselves, I couldn't stop thinking about the thousands of holidaymakers in the surrounding areas who did. Even more, I thought about local people losing their homes and belongings, years of memories turning to ash. I thought about the animals dying in the flames, and the forests that will take years to recover.

It made me, once again, realise how small we are against nature, which never picks its victims. The Gironde region has lived through devastating wildfires before, but scientists have repeatedly warned that climate change is creating the perfect conditions for these fires to become more frequent and more intense.

Many don't truly grasp the reality of climate change until it affects them personally. Perhaps now is the time to wake up.