France and Spain race to contain fires before new heatwave

NAVALUENGA, Spain — Firefighters in France and Spain rushed to contain the worst wildfires in living memory Tuesday, seizing crucial hours before the arrival of another wave of searing temperatures.

Blazes have ripped through vast swathes of woodland in both countries, incinerating properties and forcing the evacuation of hundreds of thousands of people — residents and tourists alike.

Article continues after this advertisement

A large wildfire raging near the French winemaking capital of Bordeaux created a rare pyrocumulonimbus cloud — a phenomenon that can create wind and lightning.

In the southwestern city’s surrounding Gironde region, tractors fitted with blades to clear land, pickups towing water tanks and logging trucks sped to join a convoy of fire engines on Monday.

“We want to help… I want nature to stay like it is,” said 25-year-old farmer and wood transporter Christopher Bonnefond.

‘Absolutely decisive’

New heatwaves are expected to hit western Europe this week, with searing temperatures returning in France from Tuesday, and in Spain from Wednesday, meteorologists said.

Article continues after this advertisement

Spanish Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska said the coming hours would be “absolutely decisive” to tame fires burning west of the capital, Madrid.

In France, the focus was on the blaze near Bordeaux.

Article continues after this advertisement

Firefighters said Tuesday the fire had not expanded overnight as they managed to tackle several flareups.

French President Emmanuel Macron warned of hard times ahead as he visited a crisis centre in the city on Monday.

READ: Germany’s 5,000 heat deaths: What the numbers reveal

“The coming weeks will be tough and we have to hold out,” he said.

Over the past six days, the wildfire near Bordeaux has ravaged 42,000 hectares (103,000 acres), forced 220,000 people to flee and destroyed 240 houses.

“Mobilization is still full and complete, particularly on the eve of a day that is expected to be marked by a significant rise in temperatures and a drop in humidity,” the prefect of Gironde said late Monday, describing the situation as “highly unpredictable”.

‘Lost everything’

Macron said a smaller fire in the adjoining Landes — which had nonetheless forced the evacuation of more than 30,000 people — was now “contained”.

But he warned it “remains virulent and we must be extremely cautious over the next few hours and the coming days”.

This was due to the “conditions of climate change in which we will live,” he said.

The Landes fire affected 500 hectares in 24 hours, the fire department told AFP.

Some 15,000 people in the region were able to return home as of Monday evening, according to the prefect of Landes.

In Spain, where blazes were burning west of Madrid, some 60,000 people have also been evacuated.

At a sports hall just outside Madrid, displaced people sprawled on camp beds, held their heads in their hands and comforted pets.

Maria Angeles Canete fought back tears as she looked around the desolation that used to be her campsite near Navaluenga, west of the capital.

“We lost everything,” she said. “We had this campsite, we had another one, and we’ve lost it all. We have nothing.”

The European Union on Monday announced more water-bombing planes were being sent to France, in addition to those already deployed to Spain.

But EU commissioner Hadja Lahbib told AFP that its fleet was increasingly stretched due to fears they may soon be needed elsewhere.

“Extreme conditions are looming for Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic, in addition to France, the Iberian Peninsula… where the situation is expected to worsen, including in Portugal starting today,” Lahbib said.

Devastation

The scale of the devastation from the Spanish fires is vast in the worst-affected areas.

Pine trees smouldered with blackened trunks and smoke rose from charred forests, with the burnt-out husks of cars and houses reduced to shells, AFP reporters said.

“You run to save what you can and then you turn to defend,” said Karim Benali, 39, a volunteer firefighter on a road near Navaluenga, in Spain.

READ: Europe swelters under record-breaking heatwave

That country has seen 77,000 hectares — nearly the size of New York City — destroyed.

David Sanchez, a 48-year-old, had just returned home to Cebreros after evacuating at the weekend to find that his small olive and pistachio grove had been consumed.

“Now it’s time to clean up and plant again and that’s it… and the fire has flared up again down there,” he said, surrounded by choking air that stung the eyes and throat.

Some 150,000 hectares of land have burned in Spain and 115,000 hectares in France since the start of this year.

Climate change

Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has called the fires “the most painful expression of a climate emergency”.

Spain’s weather agency AEMET announced a new heatwave starting Wednesday until the end of the week, with temperatures forecast to hit 42C in the northeast and 39C in the centre.

MeteoFrance also forecast more hot weather of up to 40C from Tuesday with dry wind. /dl