Europe wildfires rage on, forcing 200,000 from homes
Hot, arid weather and strong winds have continued to fuel wildfires in France, Spain and Italy, devastating huge swaths of land and forcing mass evacuations
Hot, arid weather and strong winds have continued to fuel wildfires in France, Spain and Italy, devastating huge swaths of land and forcing mass evacuations. As national emergencies are declared, the danger remains. As wildfires continue to engulf massive stretches of western France and central Spain, some 200,000 people have been forced to flee, with flames devouring forests and homes near Bordeaux and Madrid. Firefighters have said that the blazes, the largest recorded in both countries in recent years, are so massive that they cannot be tackled head on. On France's Atlantic coast, 44,000 people were removed from the Cap Ferret peninsula, many by boat. Towns near Bordeaux, the famed winemaking town popular with tourists, were evacuated "as a precaution" as strong winds fueled approaching flames. On Saturday morning, regional authorities further ordered the evacuation of three of the city's western suburbs "to ensure residents' safety." In all, French authorities say more than 140,000 people have been evacuated in France's western Gironde and Landes departments. In Spain, the Interior Ministry said 60,000 have been forced to flee. Wildfires in southern Europe cause mass evacuations To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video EU sending firefighting aircraft to France and Spain Authorities in France say the country's two main blazes were sparked accidentally, however, as summers become drier and hotter the magnitude of such fires has increased exponentially.
French Interior Minister Laurent Nunez, who said the government would do everything possible to protect citizens, warned that a wind shift had transformed the Cap Ferret blaze into "a large, self-sustaining fire that is extremely difficult to bring under control." "It is now moving east, toward the Bordeaux metropolitan area," added Nunez, who pledged, "We are going to reorganize our response so we can fight it from the ground and prevent it from advancing toward Bordeaux." French President Emmanuel Macron called for European Union assistance on Friday as well as the mobilization of the French army to halt fires that have so far destroyed 22,000 hectares (54,000 acres) of land. The European Commission announced that it is sending three firefighting aircraft to France and four to Spain in an effort to gain the upper hand. This week's fires have injured dozens of firefighters and killed three of them — two in western France and one in Sicily, Italy, which is now also battling blazes. Heat waves fuel wildfires across southern Europe To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video Spain declares national emergency In Spain, the government has declared a national emergency as two of the country's three current fires, all burning near the capital Madrid, merge into one.
The BriefWire