ARCACHON – Authorities in France evacuated some suburbs of Bordeaux on Saturday as a massive wildfire shifted toward the city famous for its wines.
The prefect of the Gironde region that includes Bordeaux ordered the evacuation in the early hours of Saturday, covering parts of three of the city’s western suburbs, including its airport. Evacuations were also underway in other towns and villages further west of the city’s immediate suburbs.
“As the fire continues to spread, and despite the significant resources deployed by firefighters, the situation requires the evacuation of residents from the affected areas to ensure their safety,” a statement from the prefecture said.
Massive forest fires have forced the evacuation of some 200,000 people in southwestern France and central Spain, with residents fleeing towns near Madrid and Bordeaux on Friday as flames raged out of control.
Firefighters and authorities in both European countries were caught off guard by the virulence of the fires, which were fueled by high temperatures and the long-term effects of climate change. Firefighters in Spain admitted the fires were so fast and violent that they could not be tackled head on. In France, some people even fled by boat when flames swept through touristic towns on the Atlantic coast.
Some 141,000 fled homes in the Gironde and Landes departments in France, the French interior ministry said. In central Spain, 60,000 were forced from their homes, according to the Spanish interior ministry.
Dozens of French firefighters have been injured, authorities said, but no deaths were reported in either country despite the scenes of panic as townsfolk fled by car and police went door to door to tell people to leave as large plumes of smoke darkened the skies.
Wildfire headed toward Bordeaux
Gironde region prefect Sophie Brocas said on Friday night that strong winds from the west were pushing the fire closer to the Bordeaux metropolitan area and that it had grown to “an unprecedented magnitude.”
“The scale of the fire changed,” she said. “To combat it, we will receive extremely significant national reinforcements. Reinforcements in firefighters, of course, reinforcements in military personnel, reinforcements in healthcare workers, reinforcements in experts. So, we are going to form a much larger team to face this extraordinary fire.”
People covered by the evacuation orders were being sent special alerts to their mobile phones, giving them instructions to leave.
“We want everyone to be quickly brought to safety. We must act quickly together,” Brocas said.
The blaze started on Wednesday near Cap Ferret peninsula on France’s Atlantic coast, located 60 kilometers (37 miles) from Bordeaux. On Friday, French Interior Minister Laurent Nunez described it as “a large, self-sustaining fire that is extremely difficult to bring under control.”
“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.”
Spain declares a national emergency
In Spain, the government declared a national emergency for wildfires for the first time as the blazes in Madrid and the nearby province of Ávila prompted the evacuation of some 60,000 people from towns west of the capital.
The fires are being fanned by a heat wave with temperatures expected to top 39 degrees Celsius (102 Fahrenheit).
Two major fires near Madrid merged into one single blaze that had quickly charred 30 square kilometers (11.5 square miles) by Friday afternoon. Regional President Isabel Díaz-Ayuso called it the worst in Madrid’s history.
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