"The situation is getting complicated": firefighters, exhausted on the eighth day of the mega-fire in France

BarcelonaL's most serious fire recorded in France remains stabilized, but out of control. Firefighters have so far managed to contain the flames 15 kilometers from Bordeaux. During the night, they were able to control some tongues of fire that flared up again in the towns of Camp de Souge, Arès, and Le Temple, so the devastated area remains at 42,000 hectares. But on the eighth day of efforts to extinguish the fire ravaging the Gironde region, emergency services are at their limit and extinction still seems a distant goal. "There are flare-ups that require a massive deployment of troops and air assets. Fatigue is present, as we have been fighting for eight days," Commander Matthieu Jomain assured in statements to BFMTV. "The situation is getting complicated," he warned.

Although this Tuesday night was "calm," authorities warn that they cannot let their guard down and that this afternoon will be critical: meteorological conditions will worsen with "dry winds" that could reach 45 kilometers per hour and temperatures that could climb to 41 degrees. Therefore, the deployment must remain immense: nearly 2,750 firefighters, 1,500 soldiers, 1,440 personnel from other security forces, and 18 air resources – including an A400M military aircraft adapted to drop retardant liquid – are working to combat the fire. Likewise, traffic restrictions, with closures on the A-63 highway and the southern Bordeaux rail network, remain in place.

The Gironde fire has highlighted the shortcomings of the French emergency service. Last Wednesday, the day the mega-fire in Gironde began, firefighters had already reported a lack of equipment and personnel due to the death of two firefighters in the region the day before, July 21st. Before the fire broke out near Bordeaux, the various services were already having to deal with an average of more than thirty fires per day. "The personnel involved work in consecutive shifts, sometimes for very long periods," denounces the firefighters' union in a statement. At the same time, "the need for relief, support, and reinforcements continues to increase."

Faced with a deployment of this magnitude, the volunteer firefighters' union has called for the mobilization of former firefighters, medical personnel, and people with logistical or transport skills. Their proposal is to draw up a national census to deal with the "multiplication of fires of particularly worrying scale and intensity".

In parallel, sixteen departments of the country are on orange alert for extreme temperatures this Wednesday, and twenty-three are expected to be on Thursday. In some, the fire continues to burn. In the Landes region, neighboring Gironde, the fire is under control after having burned 3,600 hectares. The same is true in the Var department, on the east coast, where the fire that devastated nearly 4,800 hectares was officially declared under control on Tuesday evening. On the other hand, the flames continue to advance in Haute-Corse and Hautes-Alpes. The first fire has burned 1,083 hectares, according to the latest assessment, published on Tuesday evening; and that in the Hautes-Alpes region has burned 510 hectares.

Another consequence of the fires is that air quality, especially in the Gironde region, has been compromised. The French Minister of Health, Stéphanie Rist, has warned that the smoke can cause respiratory problems and has urged vulnerable people or those with heart or lung diseases to stay at home or go out wearing a mask. The ministry, she assures, has made more than 5 million FFP2 masks available to pharmacies so that users who need them only have to collect them. During the same press conference, the minister reported that 42 medico-social establishments have been evacuated so far, and a total of 4,272 people have been displaced, mainly the elderly or people with disabilities.

A questioned model

Why do fires burn with such intensity? Seeing the images of forests engulfed by fire, the orderly arrangement of the burnt trees, which are at an identical distance from each other, is striking. This is explained by the fact that the forest areas currently burning in Gironde and Landes are mainly made up of artificial forests. Most of them are planted in what are called "regular single-species stands," meaning they are forests with only one species of tree of the same age. This system, which is very economically efficient for timber exploitation, has a problem: when a fire starts, the fuel supply is almost continuous. The lack of diversity means there are no other more humid plants to act as firebreaks, and the fire advances more quickly without encountering obstacles.

Added to this is the fact that the burnt forest areas are mainly maritime pine stands intended for timber production. This tree species is particularly flammable due to the resin it contains. But also because of the pine needles that accumulate at the base: this vegetation layer causes the fire to spread rapidly. While repeated heatwaves, droughts, and strong winds continue to be the main triggers of the fire, a study published in the journal Nature in 2025 asserts that plantations in temperate climatic regions (like the Mediterranean) are twice as likely to burn as natural forests.