French authorities ordered nearly 4,000 more people to evacuate today from tourist sites on the Atlantic coast as returning heat threatened firefighters’ fragile hold on a vast wildfire west of Bordeaux.
The blaze in the Gironde region has burned an area four times the size of Paris and forced 220,000 people to evacuate.
Gironde regional authorities said that the precautionary evacuation order covered campsites, holiday villages, tourist residences and leisure parks around the resort of Lacanau. France may never have seen an evacuation on this scale in peacetime.
Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez said on Saturday that it was “very likely” the largest civilian evacuation operation ever carried out in the country outside of a period of war. Firefighters held the Gironde blaze in check through a calm night, bringing flare-ups near coastal dunes under control and keeping the burned area unchanged at 420 square kilometers (162 square miles).
Authorities called the fire stabilized, not fixed, held for now, but still capable of breaking loose as temperatures rose and humidity fell.
The Gironde blaze has raged since last week and proved wildly unpredictable, transforming at times into a self-feeding firestorm. Above it towered a great, electrified black thundercloud that generated lightning, violent winds and new fires beyond the original blaze, the first recorded in France.
In Le Porge alone, west of Bordeaux, the municipal government said about 150 homes were destroyed. Officials warned that smoldering vegetation, rising temperatures and falling humidity could produce fresh outbreaks along the fire’s vast perimeter.
Even as homes burned nearby and authorities urged tourists to stay away, some holidaymakers told French media they were still weighing whether to press ahead rather than lose thousands of euros sunk into summer rentals and train tickets.
France’s national weather service placed Gironde under a yellow heat warning from midday today, forecasting inland temperatures of 33 to 35 C (91 to 95 F). Southeast winds were expected across the department, with westerly sea breezes along the coast. More than 1,160 square kilometers (448 square miles) have burned across France this year, according to the Interior Ministry.
Across France and Spain, roughly 330,000 people have been driven from homes and vacation sites by fires of exceptional scale. Spain braced for its fourth heat wave of the summer, with several blazes still out of control, including the largest in its recorded history.
Europe is the world’s fastest-warming continent, heating at more than twice the global average, according to the European Union’s Copernicus climate service. Western Europe recorded its hottest June on record, with extreme heat and widespread dryness contributing to the spread and intensification of fires in France and Spain, Copernicus said.
Firefighters At Point Of Fragility
Eric Brocardi, spokesperson for France’s national firefighters federation, told a news agency, “We are at a point of fragility,” adding, “We will continue attacking this fire despite the forecast rise in temperatures.”
Military engineers and forest-fire prevention crews resumed cutting firebreaks early today. Authorities said 103 kilometers (64 miles) had been completed.
The prefecture disclosed that ninety-three firefighters have been injured. The A63 highway remained partly closed, while rail traffic south of Bordeaux was suspended except on the route toward Toulouse.
In Landes, about 15,000 evacuees, half of the total, were allowed home after a separate wildfire stopped advancing. “The fire is fixed, which is good news in Landes,” French President Emmanuel Macron said Monday evening. Regional authorities said that meant its advance had been stopped and there were no new fire starts.
Those allowed back included residents of Sanguinet, Parentis-en-Born, Biscarrosse’s aviation village and a large campground. Several other neighborhoods remained inaccessible. However, authorities warned that the Landes fire was not extinguished. Residual hot spots, wind and drought could cause flare-ups, and surveillance and damping-down operations were expected to continue for days or possibly weeks.
Spain Continues To Battle Fire
Meanwhile, hundreds of firefighters backed by military emergency brigades and water-dropping aircraft continued battling several major wildfires in Spain. According to emergency services, smoke from the fires reached Madrid itself, where residents in central and eastern districts could smell smoke and ash in recent days.
Municipal monitors recorded increased particulate pollution in the capital.Spanish Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska said today that nonstop work through the night left him “reasonably positive,” though officials warned that crews had only a brief window before extreme heat returned.
Spain’s national weather service said that the country was bracing for its fourth heatwave of the summer, with temperatures expected to exceed 40 C (104 F) in some areas. Authorities have evacuated about 79,000 people and ordered another 30,000 to remain in their homes.
The government declared a national emergency over the fires. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has called for a national pact to fight wildfires, saying climate change is making them worse.
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