Nearly 4,000 people have been evacuated from tourist sites on France's Atlantic coast as the return of winds and extreme heat jeopardises firefighters' battles to contain wildfires raging in France and Spain. The precautionary evacuation order covers campsites, holiday villages and other tourist accommodation around the resort of Lacanau, west of Bordeaux.
French President Emmanuel Macron described the wildfire emergency as the 'toughest' situation the country has faced since the second world war. Visiting a crisis centre in Bordeaux, Macron warned that 'the coming weeks will be tough and we have to hold out'. In Spain, a woman injured in a wildfire in the southern province of Almería has died in hospital, bringing the death toll from that blaze to 14.
In the Gironde department, fire commander Rémi Lassoureille said the blaze, which has destroyed 42,000 hectares of forest, was 'relatively under control', but firefighters feared a potential flare-up towards Lacanau, prompting the evacuation of campsites. Other large fires have been contained in the nearby Landes and the Écrins massif in the French Alps, while one in the Gros Bessillon massif in the Var area of south-east France remains uncontained.
Wildfires in France, Spain and Italy have forced the evacuation of around 330,000 people over the past week. Spain is entering its fourth intense heatwave of the summer while attempting to contain some of the worst forest fires in its history. A fire in the hilly terrain of Ávila, west of Madrid, has become Spain's largest on record, burning 50,000 hectares. Firefighter Javier García said he had never faced anything like it in two decades of service.
The European Union has deployed firefighting planes and helicopters to France and Spain. EU officials have warned that wildfires could continue until early November, with this year threatening to be a record-breaking year for burnt land area. Simon Stiell, executive secretary of UN Climate Change, said the human and economic costs of the climate crisis were reaching 'national emergency' levels.
