Europe Fire Crisis: France Orders Evacuation as Wildfires Spread
In response to the raging wildfires spreading across multiple European countries, authorities in France issued an evacuation order on Friday, July 24, for all residents of the Cap Ferret peninsula, a popular tourist destination along the Atlantic coast. This directive comes on the heels of Spain declaring a state of emergency.
The Cap Ferret peninsula in France is home to numerous luxury villas and is currently packed with tens of thousands of vacationers enjoying their summer holidays in campsites and beach houses. The full-scale evacuation order highlights the severity of the fires.
According to reports by the BBC, French Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez stated that 40,000 people have been evacuated from or are in the process of evacuating the Cap Ferret peninsula. The peninsula is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean on one side and the Bay of Arcachon on the other.
Local prefect Sophie Brocas reported that 53 houses and a campsite have been destroyed by the wildfires, but 2,000 houses have been preserved.
A local councilor mentioned that 2,000 evacuees from the peninsula have arrived by boat at the Bay of Arcachon harbor on the southern coast.
Fire rescue chief Marc Vermeulen stated that the wildfires rapidly spread from late Thursday night to Friday morning. Authorities then decided to initiate a large-scale evacuation on Friday morning.
Further south on the Atlantic coast in the Landes department of France near Biscarrosse, another major fire that broke out on Thursday afternoon has led to over 23,000 evacuations.
The evacuations have primarily focused on campsites and residential areas. Additionally, a children’s summer camp and a nursing home staff have also been evacuated.
Landes prefect Gilles Clavreul stated that the fire near Biscarrosse is expected to remain uncontainable on Friday due to local wind speeds reaching up to 50 km/h (31 mph) and temperatures ranging between 36 to 37 degrees Celsius.
There have been no new reports of casualties overnight in southwestern France. Two firefighters died on Tuesday while extinguishing a major fire near Bordeaux airport.
French President Emmanuel Macron announced on Thursday evening the activation of the European Union Civil Protection Mechanism to request support and warned that the crisis is “extremely severe.”
The wildfires that started on Tuesday in France have continued to burn for several days, with approximately 10,000 hectares (100 square kilometers) of land consumed by the fires, according to officials.
In Spain, authorities declared a national state of emergency on Thursday night, July 23, as wildfires raged out of control in the Madrid autonomous community and the neighboring Avila province.
The fires have already forced around 10,000 people to evacuate the capital, Madrid, and surrounding areas, with emergency response efforts being handed over to the military’s rapid response units.
This season, Europe has experienced three consecutive heatwaves exacerbating drought conditions, leading to water resource strain, and making vegetation dry and flammable. The land area destroyed by wildfires this year has exceeded the second-highest on record, and the high temperatures have contributed to the deaths of thousands of people.