LEGE-CAP FERRET, France (AP) — A raging wildfire in southwest France forced the evacuation of 55,000 people overnight Sunday, bringing the total forced out of their homes to 220,000 in one region alone, as flames crept ever closer to the wine region city of Bordeaux. Neighboring Spain oversaw its own fire evacuations on the country's east coast.
Authorities in France's Gironde region, where Bordeaux is located, issued overnight evacuation orders for five more localities southwest of the historic city, as shifting, gusting winds and arid conditions complicated massive efforts to limit the spread of the monster blaze that has burned out of control since midweek.
Interior Minister Laurent Nunez said that after a “difficult” night for fire crews, “the situation remains very unfavorable.”
“The fire again became extremely virulent again and unpredictable, generating its own winds and advancing erratically toward the Bordeaux metropolitan area," Nunez posted on X.
“It became calmer by the end of the night," the minister added.
Fire has burned an area four times the size of Paris
The area that has burned, much of it pine forests and scrubland made tinder-dry by successive heat waves this year, has grown inexorably, expanding by Sunday morning to an estimated 42,000 hectares (162 square miles), the Gironde prefecture said. That is seven times the area of Manhattan island and four times the size of Paris.
Firefighters are battling to slow the flames' progression toward Bordeaux, both on the ground and in the air, with planes dropping water and retardants. Soldiers have been called in to reinforce fire crews' exhausting round-the-clock efforts and other European countries have sent water-dropping planes, helicopters and firefighters.
The number of firefighters mobilized has grown to 2,500, backed up by 18 planes and helicopters, Nunez said. A giant A400M military cargo aircraft that has been converted for firefighting will also be used again, the minister said. On Saturday, it swooped low over arid, fire-threatened woodlands to drop a long plume of ochre-colored retardant.
Bordeaux Mayor Thomas Cazenave described the blaze as being "at the gates of the metropolitan area,” about 15 kilometers (9 miles) away at its closest point. The Gironde prefect ordered the partial closure of a major highway heading in and out of the city.
Bordeaux has turned a giant exhibition center into an emergency shelter for evacuees, providing camp beds and food for thousands of people, including hundreds of older people evacuated from care homes.
Cazenave said an evacuation of Bordeaux itself isn't on the cards for the moment. The city is home to 268,000 people.
A second fire burning farther south in the Landes region has also forced the evacuation of 36,000 people this week, driving the total number of displaced people in the southwest to more than 250,000. Nunez said 550 firefighters were still engaged Sunday against that blaze.
Fire crews have also been battling a separate blaze in the Var region of southern France on the Mediterranean. Nearly 3,000 people have been evacuated there.
Tens of thousands of people also forced out of their homes in Spain
In neighboring Spain, authorities oversaw a new round of evacuations due to wildfires in the Valencia region. In total, uncontrolled blazes there and others west of Madrid this week have forced 116,000 people out of their homes.
A wildfire in a bushy ravine in Manises, a suburb of Valencia, that raged out of control for four hours killed one man on Saturday, the local government said, marking Spain’s first recorded death in the latest fires.
Earlier this month, 13 people were killed in a fire in southern Spain, the country’s deadliest blaze in recent memory.
Leicester reported from Paris. Associated Press writer Teresa Medrano in Madrid contributed to this report.
