More than 300,000 people fled wildfires raging across France and Spain on Saturday as worsening conditions forced fresh evacuations. Fire-generated whirlwinds fuelled blazes near Bordeaux, while Spain battled expanding infernos threatening areas near Madrid.
French authorities said Sunday that 220,000 people have now been evacuated from the main forest fire raging in the southwest of the country that now threatens the city of Bordeaux.
The latest evacuations have been in villages around Bordeaux while 60 kilometres of the main A63 highway from Bordeaux to the Spanish border has been closed because of the fires, regional authorities said. Tens of thousands more have been evacuated from other wildfires in France and central Spain.
Thousands crowded into emergency shelters in France and Spain on Sunday after wildfires drove more than 300,000 people to flee their homes and holiday accommodation.
The blazes have destroyed houses, displaced people on a massive scale and triggered one of the largest peacetime civilian evacuation operations ever carried out in France.
One person was killed in eastern Spain and fresh evacuations were ordered around the French city of Bordeaux and the Spanish capital Madrid.
Families slept on camp beds in exhibition halls and gymnasiums after fleeing walls of smoke and flames that swept through forests and tourist areas, leaving residents and holidaymakers uncertain if they would be able to return.
"We were told: 'You have to evacuate'," said Frederic Tavitian, 70, who spent the night at Bordeaux's exhibition centre, converted into a vast emergency shelter.
On Saturday, France started employing a giant Boeing A400M to help against the fires.
Paris firefighters
Meanwhile, around 100 Paris firefighters were being deployed Saturday to southwest France to help battle raging wildfires, the head of the Paris Fire Brigade told French press agency AFP.
Hundreds of firefighters have spent the past three days battling blazes in the southwestern department of Gironde, where the fires are particularly intense, as well as since Thursday near the town of Biscarrosse in the neighbouring department of Landes.
Arnaud de Cacqueray, commander of the Paris Fire Brigade, said the firefighters would primarily be involved in wildfire suppression operations.
He said 45 Paris firefighters and six vehicles had already been deployed to Gironde.
The wildfires in Gironde and Landes have forced the evacuation of some 197,000 people and have already consumed 22,000 hectares of land.
In total fires in France and Spain this week have displaced over 250,000 people, including some 70,000 people who were evacuated in central Spain. One man died in Manises, the municipality reported on its Facebook page, the first death so far in the blazes.
French authorities ordered the evacuation of towns near the southwestern city of Bordeaux "as a precaution", as wildfires moved towards the area.
The traffic information website Bison Fute urged drivers to avoid roads in the Gironde department, where Bordeaux is located, to free up access for emergency services.
Around 500 additional soldiers are being sent to "support the firefighters" battling blazes in southwest France, Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu said after a crisis meeting with his key ministers.
Spain
Meanwhile, firefighters in Spain said the blazes spread so fast and violently that they could not be tackled head on.
“We’ve never seen anything like this,” said Javier Organista, a resident of El Tiemblo, west of Madrid, where fire charred a famed chestnut grove.
“When we saw the flames coming into our town, surrounding us, leaving us with practically no way out, all the neighbors joined together to try to stop its advance.”
“It’s just really sad,” he said.
Spain deployed 2,600 firefighters, police and other emergency personnel to two blazes west of Madrid, backed by 19 water-dumping aircraft and helicopters.
(with newswires)
