Wildfires fanned by extreme heat and high winds have forced the evacuation of more than 250,000 people across southern Europe, with Spain declaring a national emergency and France deploying military aircraft and cutting short the Tour de France as blazes threaten the outskirts of Bordeaux.
Spain Declares National Emergency as Blazes Merge Near Madrid
The Spanish government declared a national emergency Friday after wildfires forced the evacuation of some 10,000 people in the central region of Madrid, while in southern France more than 60,000 residents fled their homes, including by boat, to escape two major blazes.
We are experiencing a dramatic situation, not just in several Spanish regions but also in neighboring countries,
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez wrote on X. My solidarity with all the people who have been affected and been forced to leave their homes.
Spain and France both asked fellow European Union members for help. Spanish Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska said that Italy and Greece are each sending two Canadair water-dumping airplanes. French President Emmanuel Macron said, We will soon be able to rely on reinforcements including two Croatian Canadair firefighting aircraft, two Portuguese Air Tractor aircraft, and two heavy-lift Black Hawk helicopters from the Czech Republic and Slovakia.
France Deploys Military Cargo Plane and Truncates Tour de France
LEGE-CAP FERRET, France — France sent a hulking military cargo plane to dump tons of flame retardants as it battled raging wildfires on Saturday and slashed the final stage of the Tour de France to redeploy security personnel to the blazes that forced tens of thousands of people to flee their homes. The giant A400M transporter swooped in low, its long plume of ochre-colored retardant trailing over drought-hit woodlands in the southwest as fire crews on the ground fought flames that authorities feared could spread toward the wine region city of Bordeaux.
Race organizers and the Paris police department announced a truncated 21st and final stage on Sunday for the three-week Tour, France’s most famous annual sporting event, reflecting the immense strain that two large fires in the southwest are causing for emergency services. Tour riders will race Sunday inside Paris, rather than starting from Thoiry, west of the capital, on a circuit of 55 miles — down by a third from the 82.5-mile route that had been planned. Part of the race’s security detail will instead reinforce the response efforts in the areas affected by the wildfires,
according to the statement announcing the exceptional measures made necessary by the situation.
Including some 70,000 people evacuated in central Spain, wildfires in southern Europe this week have displaced more than 250,000 people. One man died in Manises, the municipality reported on its Facebook page, the first death so far in the blazes.
Gironde Department Evacuations and Firefighter Injuries
About 67,000 residents in France escaped a larger area as authorities ordered additional evacuations further south after a separate wildfire broke out. Both France and Spain have asked fellow European Union members for help. It’s quite impressive and even frightening,
said Laurent Moretti, a resident in the town of Arès. An evacuation on this scale has never happened before. All we really hope is that the firefighters can quickly get it under control.
More than 20,000 people had already been evacuated from towns and vacation resorts on Thursday. The new evacuations were carried out by road, with boat shuttles provided for people who could not travel by their own means. Local authorities in the Gironde department said 53 homes and a campsite have been ravaged by flames, adding that 42 firefighters were injured. Around 1,500 people who fled the peninsula arrived by sea in the city of Arcachon, some aboard small water taxis and others on larger boats.
Hundreds of French firefighters have been deployed and additional ground and aerial reinforcements were sent Friday to tackle the blaze. Meanwhile, another major wildfire destroyed 25 square kilometers of land further south down the coast. It remained uncontained and strong winds hampered the work of firefighters. Authorities believe the cause of both fires was accidental. Some 44,000 people have been evacuated in Gironde, and 23,000 in the Landes, according to France’s Interior minister Laurent Nunez.
Le Porge Pine Forest Destruction and Firefighter Casualties
In France, more than 20,000 people, the majority tourists, were evacuated on a Thursday from campsites and other holiday accommodations near Bordeaux in the southwest of the country due to a forest fire that devastated a coastal pine forest. Specifically, the fire in Le Porge has destroyed more than 2,000 hectares in just two days, according to French authorities and AFP. Two firefighters died on Tuesday while fighting a fire that broke out near the Bordeaux airport. French Interior Minister Laurent Núñez met with the families of the firefighters on Wednesday, as unions warned that workers were facing exhaustion and a lack of resources.
We are dealing with a very dense grove of pine trees planted very close together, fire captain Wilfried Schneider told AFP, describing a fire of “unusual” intensity. We saw a large cloud of black smoke spread across the sky in the mid-afternoon, said Julie Leonard, a Bordeaux resident in her thirties who went with her family to a safe place in Le Porge. If I had been brave, I would have stayed in my cabin, but it was too hot. I got in the car and left, said Bernard Roche, 75, a resident of the area for 35 years. While Le Porge Mayor Martial Zaninetti stated that the fire could have been provoked by a machine used to clear forest paths, this has not yet been officially confirmed.
