France and Spain evacuate 260,000 as ‘unprecedented’ wildfires spread
Latest orders to leave extend to suburbs within 30km of the centre of Bordeaux
Forest fires burning out of control in France and Spain have forced the evacuation of almost 260,000 people, with the latest orders stretching to the outer suburbs of Bordeaux.
The emergency measures issued early on Saturday morning encompassed the Mérignac area around the Bordeaux airport, which said it was still operating but that bus and tram services to the site had been suspended.
The Bordeaux-Lac exhibition centre has been turned into a shelter for those displaced by the wildfires, which have escalated through the summer, fuelled by drought conditions and extreme heat.
Residents and tourists in the seaside resort of Cap Ferret had been asked to leave the peninsula on Arcachon Bay both by road and by emergency ferries on Friday.
France’s wildfires have forced 197,000 people to evacuate and burnt an area of just under 98,000 hectares so far, a new historic record, interior minister Laurent Nuñez said on Saturday.
Several fires have been raging in the forests in the Gironde region around Bordeaux this week, with more than 1,000 firefighters deployed to seek to limit the damage. Separate blazes in the Landes and Var regions have stretched resources further.
“The fires that are hitting our country have reached a level that has never been seen before,” France’s Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu wrote on social media.
In Spain, out-of-control wildfires close to Madrid did not spread significantly overnight, which Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said this weekend presented a pivotal “window of opportunity” to tame them.
Fires around rural towns west of the Spanish capital worsened dramatically on Friday, forcing almost 60,000 people to be evacuated and 28,000 to be confined to their homes as flames and smoke filled darkening skies.
“We’re going to face a challenging few hours,” Sánchez said on a visit to the disaster zone on Saturday morning, “because temperatures have indeed dropped, but we don’t know exactly how the winds will develop or how strong they will be.”
His government said the overnight fight against the flames, which are as close as 50km to the capital, had been aided by reduced winds, higher humidity and lower temperatures.
Isabel Díaz Ayuso, president of the Madrid region, which includes rural towns scattered around the capital, called the fires the worst in the area’s history as attempts were made to stop the bigger blazes from converging.
Both France and Spain have requested EU assistance to help battle the fires. Sánchez said that Madrid was awaiting the imminent arrival of firefighting vehicles and personnel from Italy, Greece and Portugal.
EU Commission president Ursula von der Leyen said on Saturday that a total of 11 planes and helicopters had been sent.
With more than 20,000 hectares scorched by the fires near Madrid, Sánchez said the amount of land ravaged by wildfires this year in Spain had already reached 130,000 hectares — well above the average of 100,000 hectares per year over the past decade.
“Now is the time to act responsibly and to strengthen our unity in the face of this emergency. It is also time to speed up the agreements needed to tackle the climate emergency,” Sánchez wrote on X.
Spain and France have been the epicentre of this year’s European wildfire season. Especially severe blazes in southern Spain killed at least 13 people earlier this month.
Despite a wetter than usual start to the year in western Europe, the fire conditions have been worsened by successive heatwaves that dried out vegetation, making it easier for blazes to start and spread.
Last month was the hottest June on record on the fastest-warming continent as a result of climate change.
Wildfires have broken out from the UK to Norway. A major incident was declared on Saturday by Scotland’s government, bringing in extra firefighting services after the worsening of a blaze burning in the Cairngorms National Park for more than a week.