Thousands of tourists among those evacuated amid intense wildfire in France

Original article by Jon Henley Europe correspondent

More than 20,000 people, including thousands of tourists from campsites and other holiday accommodation, have been evacuated as a “particularly intense” wildfire advances on the Atlantic coast of south-west France, authorities have said.

The blaze, which began in dense pine forest near the village of Saumos about 40km (25 miles) west of Bordeaux and just north of the bay of Arcachon, a popular tourist destination, had burned 2,400 hectares (5,928 acres) in less than 24 hours, firefighters said on Thursday.

No casualties had been reported or homes destroyed so far, they said, but the Gironde prefecture said that while 700 firefighters and four waterbombing planes were battling to bring the fire under control, the situation “remains unfavourable”.

France has endured three almost back-to-back heatwaves since May as climate breakdown leads to more frequent and intense extreme weather events causing thousands of excess deaths, evaporating soils and waterways and fuelling wildfires.

Patrick Martineau, 69, who was evacuated from the village of Le Porge, told Agence France-Presse that police had “come banging on the doors … It’s scary – hard to take in. When we bought a home here, we never thought there’d be a fire risk.”

Sylvie, a holidaymaker from Paris staying in the relatively more built-up area of Lège-Cap-Ferret, said a neighbour had told her: “‘Get your bags ready, we’re going to be evacuated during the night.’ We put the bulk of our stuff in the car boot and left.”

Elke Urbain, from Antwerp in Belgium, who holidays in the area every year, said she was advised while she was on the beach on Wednesday afternoon to “go back immediately to the campsite and gather your things. It’s just terribly sad.”

In 2022, a wildfire burned more than 30,000 hectares in the same area, forcing about 50,000 people to be evacuated. In tinder-dry conditions and fanned by a strong wind, the latest blaze has torn through the forest, with flames reaching 10 metres high.

Jean-Luc Helias, 54, from Le Porge, said he and his family had lived through that fire four years ago and “the firefighters do an amazing job to protect people’s homes. All that matters to me is that my family is safe; the rest is just material possessions.”

Nine local municipalities have opened reception centres for evacuees and were sheltering more than 2,500 people, the prefecture said. About 8,800 people were evacuated at midday on Thursday, after 2,000 in the morning and 10,000 overnight.

Numerous roads in the area – including those leading to the Cap Ferret peninsula a few kilometres to the south, home to the villas of celebrities and millionaires and one of France’s most exclusive holiday spots – were closed to all but essential traffic.

Police have opened an investigation into the causes of the wildfire, which the mayor of Le Porge, Martial Zaninetti, said on Wednesday appeared to have been started by a machine that was clearing undergrowth.

Elsewhere in France, a fire near Pontevès, about 70km north of the Mediterranean port city of Toulon, had been “stabilised” on Thursday after burning through 2,500 hectares of land and destroying at least 10 houses, firefighters said.

The prefect of the Var department, Simon Babre, on Thursday allowed 400 people who had been evacuated from the area to return to their homes to “assess the damage”, but said that the fire was not yet fully under control.

A fortnight ago, flames devastated a tenth of the Unesco-listed Fontainebleau forest outside Paris in a rare wildfire so far north. France’s interior minister, Laurent Nuñez, has said more than 12,500 wildfires had broken out since the beginning of the year.

In Spain, most of the people evacuated on Wednesday evening owing to a fire 70km south-west of Madrid were also allowed to return home. A fire that has burned 32,000 hectares in the province of Guadalajara, north of the capital, was also described as stable.