Six EU countries are sending firefighting teams and equipment to France to fight a spate of wildfires, including a fierce blaze in the parched southwest that has forced thousands to evacuate, officials said on Thursday.
Most of the country is suffering from a summer heatwave compounded by a record drought – conditions that most experts say will become more frequent as a result of rapid climate change.
“More than ever, we must continue our fight against climate disruption and… adapt to this climate disruption,” Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne said after arriving at a fire brigade command post in the village of Hostens, south of Bordeaux.
The European Commission said four firefighting planes from Greece and Sweden would be sent to France, while teams from Austria, Germany, Poland and Romania were on the way.
“Our partners are coming to help France against the fires. Thank you very much. European solidarity is at work!” President Emmanuel Macron tweeted.
“Across the country, over 10,000 firefighters and security forces are being mobilized against the blaze… These soldiers of fire are our heroes,” he said.
Of the eight major fires currently raging, the largest is the Landiras fire in the southwestern department of Gironde, whose forests and beaches attract huge tourist crowds each summer.
It had already burned 14,000 hectares (35,000 acres) in July — the driest month in France since 1961 — before being contained, but it continued to smolder in the region’s dry pine forests and peaty soils.
Since Tuesday’s flare-up, which officials suspect was caused by arson, it has burned 6,800 hectares, destroyed or damaged 17 homes and forced 10,000 people to flee their homes, said Lt. Col. Arnaud Mendousse of the fire and rescue service Gironde.
Borne said nine firefighting planes are already dumping water on the fire, with two more expected to be in action by the weekend.
– ‘California’ –
“We fought all night to prevent the fire from spreading, particularly to defend the village of Belin-Beliet,” Mendousse told journalists in Hostens.
On several nearby homes, people hung white sheets reading “Thank you for saving our homes” and other messages of support for weary firefighters.
“You’d think we’re in California, it’s gigantic… And they’re used to wildfires here, but we’re being overwhelmed from all sides — no one could have predicted it,” said Remy Lahlay, a firefighter who was deployed nearby Hostens in the Landes de Gascogne Natural Park, told AFP.
And with temperatures in the region expected to reach 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) on Thursday and remain so until at least Sunday, “there is a very serious risk of new outbreaks” for the Landiras fire, the Gironde departmental prefecture said.
Reinforcements are planned for the 1,100 firefighters now trying to contain the blaze.
Biting smoke has spread across much of the south-west Atlantic coast and its beaches, which draw large tourist crowds each summer, with the regional ARS health agency “urging” people to wear protective face masks.
The smoke also forced the closure of the A63 motorway, a main artery towards Spain, between Bordeaux and Bayonne.
The government has urged employers to give volunteer firefighters furlough to help fight the blazes.
In Portugal, more than 1,500 firefighters fought a fire on Thursday that has been raging for days in the mountainous Serra da Estrela Natural Park in the center of the country.
According to the European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS), it has already burned 10,000 hectares.
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