New evacuations in fire-ravaged France
A new heat wave threatens extinguishing efforts in France and Spain.
French authorities are ordering further evacuations in fire-ravaged Gironde.
Gironde authorities said on Tuesday that the major fire raging outside Bordeaux was stable, but still not under control.
“We are in a fragile situation,” Eric Brocardi, spokesman for the country’s national fire brigade, told BFMTV.
After a couple of days of more favorable weather, temperatures have risen and winds are expected to pick up. Météo-France is predicting temperatures of up to 40 degrees in the area in the coming days.
“We will continue to fight the fire despite the predicted increase in temperature,” Brocardi said.
New evacuations
On Tuesday, authorities ordered new evacuations in the municipality of Lacanau in Gironde. The evacuations are being carried out to “facilitate rescue operations,” the authorities said.
“All campsites in the city, by the lake and by the sea will be evacuated calmly in the next few hours,” a post on social media said.
On Tuesday, the mayor of Lège-Cap Ferret also announced that the fire had increased in strength near one of the beaches in the municipality.
“At this stage, the evacuation order is still in effect. For your safety, it is absolutely necessary not to enter the municipality,” local authorities wrote on social media.
Around 240 houses have been destroyed in the giant fire, which has forced more than 220,000 people to leave their homes and holiday homes. Nearly 3,000 firefighters are involved in the extinguishing work with the support of the military and volunteers.
High temperatures
In Spain, where the fire in Ávila outside Madrid is the largest to hit the country, authorities are cautiously positive even though they emphasize that the fires are not under control.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said during a press conference that firefighters are starting to see “light at the end of the tunnel”.
“We are really turning the tide, and we can start to see light at the end of the tunnel in the fight against these fires, with all the precautions, especially in the complex days and hours ahead,” Sanchez said.
The country’s national weather agency AEMET warns that a new heat wave is coming with temperatures as high as 42 degrees in parts of the country. The agency writes that the fire risk “is rising to very high or extreme levels across almost the entire country”.
Around 60,000 people have been forced to leave their homes as a result of the fires, AFP reports.
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