Photos| Fires in France and Spain push more affected people to shelters
The municipality of Manises reported that one person was killed in a fire that broke out near the city of Valencia in eastern Spain, and firefighting teams were later able to control it.
On the other hand, local authorities decided on Saturday evening to evacuate more residents from several areas near Bordeaux in southwestern France, including the town of Siesta, which has 55,000 people.
The authorities of the Gironde province announced on Sunday that the massive fire that swept the area surrounding the Arcachon basin and now threatens the suburbs of Bordeaux, destroyed 42,000 hectares of land.
The fire department in Gironde province told AFP that the fire was so intense that it had formed a fiery cumulonimbus cloud, and was “generating its own winds, with eddies, making it irregular and out of control.”
French Interior Minister Laurent Nunez warned, in an interview with La Tribune newspaper on Sunday, that fighting the fire “will take a long time,” and said, “The evacuated residents will not be returned to their homes as long as the fire continues.”
Before the latest evacuations, Nunez said that with about 200,000 people forced to leave their homes or vacation spots, it was “very likely” that this would be the largest civilian evacuation conducted in France outside of a war situation.
On Saturday evening, 1,500 soldiers were called in to help fight the fire.
For the first time, an A400M military transport aircraft was used to fight a fire, thanks to a system developed by Airbus, which manufactured it, capable of spraying 20,000 liters of water or materials that slow the spread of the fire.
Displaced people flock in large numbers to shelters in Bordeaux, amid scenes of devastation and destruction.
We have to evacuate
“We were told we had to evacuate our homes,” said Frederic Tavitian, 70, who took refuge in the Bordeaux Exhibition Center. “We saw columns of smoke, like a volcano about to explode.”
The number of affected people who left their homes ranged between 5 and 6 thousand people.
The fire destroyed more than 32,000 hectares, three times the area of Paris, and destroyed at least 100 buildings and 140 homes, according to the authorities, who described the fire as “the largest during this season” in a tourist area known internationally for its vineyards.
“It’s a horrific scene,” said Matthew Plessis, 40, as he inspected the ruins of his home in the Gironde region.
He continued, “It was like hell. At three o’clock in the afternoon, it was completely dark because of the smoke, and we saw firefighters leaving one after another. The wind changed, and no one was left to protect the homes.”
The drying of vegetation due to the severe drought that Europe has witnessed in recent months leads to rapid fires in forests, and the situation was exacerbated by the record heat waves that swept the continent in June and July.
Another fire is still active in the Var department in southeastern France, and has destroyed 3,250 hectares in five days, each time requiring evacuations for a total of 2,000 people.
Corsica has been witnessing a fire for days that firefighters are trying to control. In the Haute-Corse region, a fire in the Court area destroyed more than 800 hectares, according to the authorities.
More pessimistic than yesterday
Spain is also witnessing major fires.
Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska told reporters, “We are a little more pessimistic today than we were yesterday. The weather conditions, as you saw all day, were not favorable at all. The coming night does not bode well.”
On Saturday evening, the authorities ordered the evacuation of eight additional areas in Toledo, west of Madrid.
About 60,000 people were evacuated in the Madrid area.
On Friday, two forest fires merged to form a huge fire that was about to merge in turn with a third fire in the Castille-y-Leon region.
The fires burned up to 25,000 hectares west of Madrid.
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