Main Points
- French president Emmanuel Macron has called a crisis meeting focusing on uncontrolled wildfires that have forced more than 300,000 people to flee their homes
- With France about to enter its peak August tourist season, authorities in the Gironde region have taken steps to keep holidaymakers away
- A French official said uncontrolled fires were still headed toward Bordeaux, an urban centre of 265,000 people
- In Spain, prime minister Pedro Sánchez visited fire-hit areas in Avila, one of three central provinces affected by major blazes alongside Madrid and Toledo, where more than 45,000 hectares (111,000 acres) have burned
Key Reads
- What is a ‘fire cloud’, and how have they worsened wildfires in Europe?
- Macron calls crisis meeting as wildfire threatens Bordeaux
- Irish in Europe: have you been impacted by wildfires? Share your story
Over 55,000 people affected by Madrid wildfire
More than 55,000 people in the Madrid region have either been evacuated or ordered to shelter in their homes as 300 firefighters and eight aircraft battle a huge wildfire to the west of the Spanish capital.
President of the Madrid regional government Isabel Díaz Ayuso said that the fire had burned 28,000 hectares of land, which forced the closure of 13 roads and the evacuation of multiple elderly residence homes.
The region has set up 18 centres to receive evacuated people.
The firefighters “are risking their lives” to fight the blaze, Díaz said in a social media post. “We have no words to express our gratitude.”
France braces for a fourth heatwave
A fourth heatwave is forecast to take hold in France from Tuesday, with peak temperatures as high as 42 degrees Celsius in parts of the country.
The combination of extreme heat and vegetation that has already been parched by three previous heatwaves is raising concerns of further wildfire risk, with the usual peak month of August still ahead.
Southwest France, which is already badly affected by wildfires, is expected to bear the brunt with temperatures of between 37 and 39 degrees, possibly exceeding 40 degrees in areas between Toulouse and the Aquitaine basin.
Further north, the Paris region and northeast of France are expected to have temperatures of over 35 degrees Celsius.
The overall temperature is expected to stay high during the nights, remaining upward of 25 degrees in many parts of France.
The heat is forecast to reach its peak later this week, on Saturday August 1, but the outlook is uncertain and the heatwave could last another week after that.
Bordeaux fire still not ‘under control’
A massive blaze that reached 15 kilometres from the French city of Bordeaux is still not under control, the emergency services have said.
“The weather conditions are favorable, with less wind. But there are still active fires,” the spokesman for the Bordeaux fire service SDIS33 Wilfried Schneider told AFP news agency.
The most active area of the fire is between the areas of Marcheprime and Pierroton, on the outskirts of the Bordeaux metropolitan area.
“We can’t say the fire is stabilised. We’ve stabilised a situation that was completely unstable, but we’re still not in control of the fire,” he said.
Tourists flee wildfires by by boat in Italy
About 400 tourists were evacuated due to a wildfire on the coast near Peschici in the southeastern region of Apulia, with the coastguard rescuing dozens of them by boat.
The evacuated people were housed in school buildings last night and were expected to be able to return to their accommodation soon as firefighters and water-bombing aircraft helped bring the blaze under control.
The incident brought back painful memories of a 2007 fire in the same area that killed three people and injured 300.
“A vast fire is destroying the pine forest that had begun to grow again over the past 20 years, between Peschici and Vieste,” president of the Gargano railways Vincenzo Scarcia Germano, who helped evacuate tourists, told local media.
Wildfires force evacuation of 90,000 people in Spain
Authorities in Spain have evacuated over 90,000 people while 30,000 have been confined to their homes as firefighters battle massive blazes in the regions of Madrid, Ávila, and Toledo.
The fire in the region of Ávila is the largest in Spain’s recent history and has burned some 47,000 hectares.
The evacuated areas of the Madrid region include Chapinería, Navas del Rey, Colmenar del Arroyo, and Cenicientos -- municipalities on the western extremity of the Spanish capital’s surrounding region towards the Valle de Iruelas nature reserve.
Authorities in several areas of Spain have urged people to remain indoors due to wildfire smoke, which is particularly dangerous for children, the elderly, pregnant women, or people with conditions like asthma or heart trouble.
Macron holds crisis meeting
French President Emmanuel Macron is currently holding a crisis meeting to address the wildfires that are raging across France.
A huge fire outside Bordeaux has forced the evacuation of 220,000 people and has burned 42,000 hectares, making it of record size.
Some 84 firefighters have been injured as they try to contain the blazes.
Other fires are still burning elsewhere in France, including in the regions of Hautes-Alpes, Haute-Corse, Var, and Landes.
Fuelled by dry conditions and high winds, wildfires have burned up a record amount of land in France this year.
