More than 320,000 people have been forced to flee their homes across France and Spain as a series of wildfires continues to wreak havoc across parts of southern Europe.
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In southwestern France, 220,000 people have now been evacuated after a fire broke out in the Gironde department last Tuesday. The blaze has so far burnt around 42,000 hectares in the region.
Thousands of evacuees are now being housed in makeshift shelters in exhibition centres and sports halls across southwest France.
According to the Gironde prefecture, 2,500 firefighters are attempting to tackle the blaze with support from 1,500 soldiers and 1,200 police officers and gendarmes. 18 aerial firefighting assets are also in operation.
84 firefighters have been injured since the fire started, per local authorities.
On Monday, the Gironde region said it had taken the decision to ban summer camps for children, Scout camps, and holiday stays for people with disabilities, citing ” exceptional circumstances arising from the ongoing wildfires.”
“The situation remains very unfavourable,” French Interior Minister Laurent Nunez after said on Sunday after what he described as “another difficult night” for fire crews.
“The fire became extremely virulent and unpredictable once again, generating its own winds and advancing erratically toward the Bordeaux metropolitan area,” Nunez wrote in a post on X, adding that it had become calmer as the night progressed.
Farmers have also been offering assistance to fire crews in southwestern France, providing water tanks and their knowledge of the local terrain to help emergency responders battle the flames, create firebreaks, and establish access routes.
“This allows firefighters to focus on the fire,” Theo Hernandez, a local wine grower, said. “It’s very strong, very virulent, it’s spreading everywhere.”
However, Sophie Brocas, the prefect of Gironde, has said authorities do “not want farmers taking individual initiatives.”
“Generosity is great, provided it is organised,” she said, adding that there was a “system in place” for farmers to work with firefighters.
Madrid flames slowly being contained
In Spain, some elderly evacuees who fled a town in the Madrid area are reportedly being allowed to return home on Monday as fire crews work to stabilise a blaze that has ravaged areas around the capital.
Meanwhile, evacuations were carried out Sunday in the Valencia region. A man was killed Saturday in a wildfire in Manises, a Valencia suburb, marking Spain’s first recorded death in the latest fires. Another fire has devastated the province of Ávila.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez is due to visit areas hit by fires in the Valencia region.
“We still have some difficult hours ahead,” Sánchez said on Sunday, adding that the night was “very positive in terms of bringing the flames under control.”
A total of 76,000 people have been evacuated in the Iberian country while 30,000 others have been confined to their homes, the government said. Evacuees expressed concern about what they’ll find when they’re allowed to return to their residences.
“It looked like the apocalypse. You couldn’t see anything. Everything was covered in ash,” said Rocío Domínguez, who evacuated with her dog from Chapinería, west of Madrid.
“We don’t know when we get to the town, if we’ll have half the house burned down or we’ll have it intact or we won’t have a house,” she said. “All the clothes, all the memories, everything.”
