The two fires that broke out on Tuesday afternoon in the Gironde department, with its capital in Bordeaux, have burned more than 9,100 hectares until midday and have forced the evacuation of more than 12,000 people.
The Prefecture (Government delegation) indicates in a statement that until 12:30 local the fire that originated in the town of Landiras, southeast of Bordeaux, has burned 6,500 hectares in total. The situation is “very unfavorable” because the wind spreads the fire to the southwest and new evacuations could be necessary “depending on the evolution”, warned the Prefecture.
Many roads are closed. According to the first elements disclosed by the investigators, the fire was caused.
On the other front of La Teste de Buch, although the advance of the flames has not stopped completely, it has stabilized and the area burned has not changed in recent hours, with 3,150 hectares of forest that have burned since Tuesday.
More than 1,200 firefighters are trying to extinguish both fires, supported in the air by three Canadair-type seaplanes and a Dash-type water bomber plane. Beyond the material damage, which includes several houses and buildings that have been consumed by the flames, there have been no personal victims.
Several hundred kilometers away, in the Rhône valley, another fire that broke out on Thursday in the Montagnette massif due to an incident with a freight train has destroyed 1,300 hectares but has stabilized.
Around 1,100 firefighters work on that fire that originated in the municipality of Barbentane, south of the city of Avignon, supported, among other aerial means, by two Greek Canadair seaplanes that had arrived thanks to the activation by France of the European solidarity mechanism of RescEu civil protection.
The French Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, also thanked Italy for having made available two other planes of this type that “will be deployed according to need.”
In a statement released on Friday, the minister noted that since the beginning of the year 13,000 hectares of forest have burned in France, compared to 500 last year on the same dates.
The south of France has been experiencing a heat wave since last week that will spread to the north in the coming days. Météo France maintains 16 departments in the south of France, out of the hundred in the country, on orange alert due to the heat wave. In many of them, access to the forests has been prohibited even to hikers and athletes to try to prevent fires. In addition, there are another twenty or so departments on yellow alert.
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