Wildfire now nine miles away from French city of Bordeaux, mayor warns
The mayor of Bordeaux said he was preparing for “all possibilities” as one of several wildfires raging in France is now 15 kilometers (nine miles) from the southwestern city.
“We are preparing to accommodate large numbers of people in case further evacuation orders are issued,” Thomas Cazenave said.
Firefighters in the Gironde region were facing an “unprecedented” situation Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez said they were fighting a fire that “had a life of its own.”
Approximately 220,000 people were evacuated in France and more than 100,000 people in Spain, where the fires west of Madrid continued “uncontrolled”.
Another intense heat wave on Tuesday could further hinder firefighting efforts.
Jerome Steffe, mayor of the town of Cestas, south of Bordeaux, told the BBC it would be “the fire of the century”.
He described how 17,000 residents were evacuated from his town overnight as the fire grew two days ago. He said so far the region has seen 42,000 hectares (103,000 acres) burned and 240 homes destroyed.
“The situation in my city is truly catastrophic,” he added.
Although the fire is no longer moving as fast as before, he said his crews “only won a small battle” and emphasized that the risk remains due to flying embers or sudden changes in wind direction.
“We are putting all our energy into creating protective firebreaks,” he explained, but admitted that “we are all scared of this situation.”
French Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu warned that the country was “going through an unprecedented fire season”.
In a post on X on Monday, Lecornu wrote: “116,085 hectares [286,852 acres] “It’s already burned, and there have been 13,566 fires since January.”
The Minister explained that nine out of 10 fires are “human-caused, and most of them are caused by carelessness (cigarette butts, barbecues, careless work).”
But he also said that “not all these fires are accidents” and “some are deliberately set”, adding that since 6 July, 162 arrests have taken place.
President Emmanuel Macron is now visiting some fire-ravaged areas in the Gironde to show his support for firefighters and other crews responding to fires.
Fires are also burning in many other regions of France, including the Var and Landes, as well as in Haute-Corse on the island of Corsica.
