Maximum alert in Bordeaux: the flames of a large fire are only 15 km from the city
There are more than 220,000 evacuated since Wednesday
BarcelonaThe most serious fire ravaging France, southwest of Bordeaux, has remained stable overnight, according to French authorities. However, the situation remains at extreme alert because the fire is burning in "very unfavorable" conditions, according to Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez. This Sunday the flames had devoured 42,000 hectares —practically 10,000 more than in yesterday's report—, which places this fire as the most serious in the last fifty years in the country and one of the worst since World War II. Evacuation figures also continue to grow. Counting the nearly 20,000 people who evacuated during the night, the number of displaced people already exceeds 220,000.
This Sunday, the fire advanced towards the city of Bordeaux, a conurbation of more than 700,000 inhabitants, and is now just 15 kilometers from the metropolitan area of the capital of Gironde, as reported by the mayor, Thomas Cazenave. Authorities have closed the A-63 motorway, which connects to Spain, and have suspended rail traffic south of Bordeaux. For now, however, they rule out the need to evacuate any neighborhoods in the capital.
The regional government has attributed the "rapid spread of the fire" on Saturday night to Sunday to strong winds and a large volume of dry vegetation. "The fire is extremely violent and unpredictable, it is generating its own wind and advancing erratically towards the metropolitan area of Bordeaux. At the end of the night, however, it has calmed down again," explained the minister in a statement early in the morning. In addition, the flames have caused the formation of pyrocumulus clouds, a type of fire clouds caused by very localized natural heat sources that increase the unpredictability of the fire.
"Combine fire, storm, and wind," assured the regional prefect, Sophie Brocas, who described the fire as an "unpredictable phenomenon." Another consequence is that the alert threshold for fine particles has been exceeded in four departments in the southwest. For this reason, the population has been advised to go outside as little as possible and keep windows closed.
The virulence of the flames, added to the rest of the hot spots across the country, has pushed emergency services to the limit. More than 2,500 firefighters, 1,500 soldiers, and 1,200 police officers and gendarmes, along with 450 volunteers, are working to extinguish the fire in the Gironde region. According to the latest report provided by the region's prefecture, 75 firefighters have been injured during the firefighting operations and 240 houses have been burned. Up to 18 aircraft have also been deployed, including, for the second day, the A400M military plane, with a large water-carrying capacity.
Solutions for the evacuated
Foreseeing that the extinction tasks may be prolonged, the mayor of Bordeaux has explained that they are "massively" seeking temporary accommodation solutions for the thousands of evacuees who have gathered in the region after having to leave their homes in a hurry. Most have gathered at the Parc des Expositions, where around 2,500 people spent the night. He also pointed to university residences or school rooms as possible solutions, where evacuees can be "more comfortable".
The fire began on Wednesday in the Arcaishon basin, one of the main tourist areas on the Atlantic coast which hosts some luxury villas and is currently full of tourists who have settled there for their summer holidays. Initial investigations by the authorities indicate that the fire may have originated accidentally from cleaning and brush clearing work.
Regarding the other fires, in the Biscarròssa area, in the neighboring department of Landes, the fire is more contained, but has already devoured more than 3,600 hectares. There are more than 36,000 evacuees, of whom 3,000 were able to return home on Saturday night. In contrast, in Var – in the southeast of the country – the fire has reignited and has burned about 4,500 hectares in total, prompting the preventive evacuation of about 2,000 people.
The French government assured on Saturday that, during this year, 98,000 hectares have been burned in the country, a figure it described as a "historic record", and which is expected to increase.