Across France and Spain, roughly 330,000 people have been driven from homes and vacation sites by fires of exceptional scale. Spain braced for its fourth heat wave of the summer, with several blazes still out of control, including the largest in its recorded history.
France may never have seen an evacuation on this scale in peacetime. Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez said Saturday it was “very likely” the largest civilian evacuation operation ever carried out in the country outside of a period of war.
Firefighters held the Gironde blaze in check through a calm night, bringing flare-ups near coastal dunes under control and keeping the burned area unchanged at 420 square kilometers (162 square miles).
Authorities called the fire stabilized, not fixed — held for now, but still capable of breaking loose as temperatures rose and humidity fell.
Temperatures are forecast to rise again
The precautionary evacuation order covered campsites, holiday villages, tourist residences and leisure parks around the resort of Lacanau, Gironde regional authorities said.
“We are at a point of fragility,” Eric Brocardi, spokesperson for France’s national firefighters federation, told BFMTV on Tuesday. “We will continue attacking this fire despite the forecast rise in temperatures.”
Even as homes burned nearby and authorities urged tourists to stay away, some holidaymakers told French media they were still weighing whether to press ahead rather than lose thousands of euros sunk into summer rentals and train tickets.
France’s national weather service placed Gironde under a yellow heat warning from midday Tuesday, forecasting inland temperatures of 33 to 35 C (91 to 95 F). Southeast winds were expected across the department, with westerly sea breezes along the coast.
More than 1,160 square kilometers (448 square miles) have burned across France this year, according to the Interior Ministry.
