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French President Emmanuel Macron will chair an emergency cabinet meeting on Monday as massive wildfires continue to threaten the south-western city of Bordeaux, while another intense heatwave is forecast to hamper firefighting efforts.
The fast-moving blaze is currently about 15 kilometres from the outskirts of Bordeaux, Mayor Thomas Cazenave said, adding that there are no immediate plans to evacuate the city of around 850,000 people. However, tens of thousands of residents in surrounding communities have already been forced to flee.
France’s Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez described the situation as “very unfavourable”, warning that the wildfire is advancing unpredictably towards the Bordeaux metropolitan area.
The crisis is expected to worsen as temperatures are forecast to soar to 40 degrees Celsius in parts of France from Tuesday, creating ideal conditions for the flames to spread.
The main wildfire in the Gironde region has generated an exceptionally rare pyrocumulonimbus cloud, a massive fire-induced thunderstorm capable of producing its own powerful winds and lightning, according to the National Firefighters Federation of France (FNSPF).
“We don’t know how the blaze will spread because the fire front is constantly shifting. We cannot fight it directly,” FNSPF spokesman Eric Brocardi said, describing the operation as “a David-versus-Goliath scenario.”
He said firefighters would need either several days of heavy rainfall or favourable natural barriers, such as the coastline, to bring the fire under control.
The wildfires have devastated large parts of France, scorching around 42,000 hectares in the south-west in one of the country’s worst forest fires since World War II. Nearly 98,000 hectares have burned nationwide since the beginning of the year, while more than 220,000 people have been evacuated across south-west France.
President Macron pledged that France would “rebuild” the affected areas and assured residents that the government would provide support “for as long as is needed.”
The wildfire crisis has also engulfed neighbouring Spain, where firefighters are battling fresh blazes near the eastern coastal city of Valencia. Around 15,000 residents have been evacuated from the area as authorities warn that high temperatures and strong winds could intensify the fires.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, after visiting the fire-ravaged Ávila region west of Madrid, warned that “difficult hours lie ahead” and renewed his call for “a major public pact on the climate emergency.”
Spain’s Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska said firefighters were making progress despite the difficult conditions, while King Felipe VI described the destruction caused by the fires as “incalculable” during a visit to an emergency shelter.
According to Spain’s Minister for Ecological Transition, Sara Aagesen, wildfires have already burned about 77,000 hectares across the country this year. The blaze in the Ávila region is now considered the largest wildfire in Spain’s recent history.
More than 90,000 people have been evacuated from the Madrid and Ávila regions, with authorities saying shifting winds are pushing the fires away from the capital but threatening additional communities along their path.
The wildfires sweeping France and Spain have forced more than 330,000 people to evacuate over the past week, highlighting the growing impact of extreme weather across southern Europe. Source: BBC News
