Paris, July 25 (EFE).- Nearly 98,000 hectares have burned in France so far this year, marking a historic record, Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez said on Saturday, as firefighters battled a massive wildfire near Bordeaux that has triggered what authorities believe is the country’s largest-ever wildfire evacuation operation.
«To date, nearly 98,000 hectares have burned, largely because of the rapid spread of the Gironde wildfire, representing a historic record,» Nuñez told a press conference.
The minister said the evacuation of around 167,000 people from the Gironde fire, which began near the Bay of Arcachon, together with the evacuation of another 30,000 residents in the neighboring Landes department due to the Biscarrosse wildfire, is likely the largest wildfire evacuation operation in French history.
As the blaze continued advancing toward Bordeaux, authorities on Saturday ordered the precautionary evacuation of seven municipalities: Le Haillan, Eysines, Mérignac, Saint-Médard-en-Jalles, Saint-Jean-d’Illac, Martignas-sur-Jalle and Saint-Aubin-de-Médoc.
Mérignac is home to Bordeaux Airport, while Saint-Médard-en-Jalles hosts a Seveso-classified industrial facility jointly operated by ArianeGroup and Roxel, which manufacture oxidizers for the European Ariane rocket and propellants for missiles and rockets. Authorities said additional protection had been deployed around such industrial sites.
Bordeaux Mayor Thomas Cazenave said there were no immediate plans to evacuate the city itself, as the fire remained about 30 kilometers away.
Emergency reception centers have been established, including one at Bordeaux’s Exhibition Park, which has accommodated more than 5,000 evacuees.
In Gironde, where 750 firefighters are already deployed and around 1,000 soldiers are being mobilized because of the exceptional scale of the emergency, conditions overnight were calmer than expected.
Nuñez said the fire was no longer exhibiting the «convective» behavior in which intense heat generates its own winds and causes rapid, unpredictable changes in direction.
However, authorities warned that stronger westerly winds expected from around 4 p.m. local time could complicate firefighting efforts.
The Gironde fire has burned about 40,000 hectares, according to local media, and destroyed around 100 buildings. Eighteen aircraft are operating over the blaze, including two Canadair water bombers and two Dash firefighting aircraft.
At the request of Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu, an Airbus A400M military aircraft modified for firefighting operations will also join the response later on Saturday, despite still undergoing testing and not originally being scheduled to enter service before July 29.
«In close collaboration with the Ministry of the Interior, the armed forces resources mobilized since June are being urgently reinforced,» Defense Minister Catherine Vautrin wrote on X, describing the situation as a «brutal, serious and unprecedented crisis.»
Lecornu announced that an additional 500 soldiers would be deployed to Gironde and neighboring Landes, bringing the total military personnel supporting firefighting and evacuation operations to more than 1,000.
Following a government crisis meeting, he described the fires as having reached an «unprecedented» level and said further evacuations would be ordered wherever necessary.
The prime minister also announced the distribution of 1.5 million FFP2 masks for emergency workers and residents exposed to smoke, the mobilization of the Armed Forces Health Service and eight additional mobile police and gendarmerie units, and the activation of the national «white plan» in hospitals to strengthen emergency response capacity.
Authorities also authorized the Gironde prefecture to requisition public works equipment and public transport vehicles to support evacuations and deploy reinforcements.
The number of evacuees rose from about 110,000 on Friday to roughly 167,000 after another 57,000 people were evacuated overnight, including residents of communities on the outskirts of Bordeaux.
The French road information agency Bison Futé urged motorists to avoid traveling to or through Gironde because of exceptionally heavy holiday traffic and to postpone journeys until conditions improve.
It recommended using the A20 and A64 highways as an alternative route between France and Spain.
State railway operator SNCF also urged travelers heading to Gironde and Landes to postpone their journeys until at least Monday.
In the neighboring Landes department, around 500 firefighters are battling a separate blaze that has burned about 3,500 hectares.
Authorities hope to bring the fire under control during the day, with most evacuations taking place in Biscarrosse and Parentis-en-Born, while preventive evacuations continue in other threatened communities, including Sanguinet.
Elsewhere, a third major wildfire in the southeastern Var department had burned 3,250 hectares by Saturday morning, with overnight flare-ups prompting evacuations in Châteauvert and western Correns.
Residents have been allowed to return to Pontevès and Montfort-sur-Argens.
In the Tarn department, another wildfire was brought under control after scorching 600 hectares, while a lightning-sparked fire in the Hautes-Alpes department had burned 460 hectares by the end of Friday.
France was battling around 30 active wildfires on Friday. EFE
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