By Janis Laizans and Emma Pinedo
BORDEAUX/MADRID, July 27 (Reuters) – Firefighters sought on Monday to take advantage of more favourable weather conditions to subdue massive wildfires threatening the French city and tourist region of Bordeaux and a number of sites in neighbouring Spain.
They were racing against the clock as another heatwave is expected to hit both countries later this week in what has been a blisteringly hot and dry summer across Western Europe.
Authorities have evacuated about 220,000 people, including holidaymakers and local residents, in France, while further south in Spain around 100,000 have been told to leave their homes or seek shelter.
In Bordeaux, French President Emmanuel Macron thanked firefighters for their hard work, warning the coming weeks would remain difficult. “We must hold on. We are going to win this battle together. The whole nation is behind you,” he said.
Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu said France was going through an unprecedented wildfire season, with the area burned already having surpassed the previous record year of 2022.
“The fight against wildfires begins with prevention. Nine out of 10 fires are human-caused and most arise from carelessness: a cigarette butt, a barbecue, work carried out without precaution,” he wrote on X.
Firefighters faced an especially dangerous situation in Vall d’Uixo, in the eastern Castellon province, where the ground contains old ordnance from the Spanish Civil War that explodes when the flames reach the area, Chevi Bolumar, fire chief of the Valencian regional government, told public broadcaster TVE.
The French blazes, which broke out last week near the Atlantic coast, were only 15 kilometres (9.3 miles) from entry points to the main metropolitan area of Bordeaux. Eighty firefighters had been injured tackling the blaze, according to local officials.
LOCALS SUFFER ‘EMOTIONAL LOSS’
The spread of the large fires converging in central Spain slowed overnight, authorities said, but the blaze in the Castellon province raged out of control as the weather agency warned of another potential heatwave this week.
“What we’re experiencing isn’t a succession of isolated events. It’s the most painful expression of a climate emergency that is making sixth-generation wildfires more ferocious, heatwaves more frequent, and our territory more vulnerable,” Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said on Monday.
The so-called sixth-generation fires are the most extreme and uncontrollable category of forest blazes. Many scientists blame such fires and heatwaves on human-driven climate change.
Maria Angeles Serrano, an evacuee in Castellon, said she was particularly upset about the impact on nature. “Material damage is one thing, but that can be repaired, so to speak. What really hurts is the emotional loss.”
BORDEAUX VINEYARDS NOT AFFECTED SO FAR
The wildfires in southwestern France have delivered a shock to the regional tourism-dependent economy, Finance Minister Roland Lescure said on Monday.
However, the prized Bordeaux wine-growing areas have not been affected, said Christophe Chateau, communications director at the Bordeaux wine industry association CIVB, adding that drought, rather than fire, remained the industry’s biggest concern.
In central Spain, three separate fronts remained active in the mountains northwest of Madrid in the provinces of Madrid, Toledo and Avila. The one in Avila has been classified as the biggest wildfire in recent Spanish history.
“Today and tomorrow are absolutely crucial days in tackling this wildfire. From Wednesday onwards, weather forecasts become significantly more unfavourable,” said Spanish Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska.
France faced a similar situation, with slightly easier conditions on Monday before temperatures rise again to as high as 37 degrees Celsius (98.6 degrees Fahrenheit) later this week in the Bordeaux area, according to France’s weather office.
In both Bordeaux and Avila, July high temperatures have averaged 32 degrees Celsius (90 degrees Fahrenheit), almost 6 C above the month’s normal high between 1961 and 1990, according to the Reuters Climate Monitor.
RESPONSE UNDER SCRUTINY
The scale of this summer’s wildfires in Europe is putting pressure on firefighting resources and raising questions about how to respond.
Aircraft from Turkey, Italy and Greece, as well as a Portuguese wildfire intervention team, are joining the firefighting efforts in Spain.
Switzerland is supporting France by sending two Super Puma helicopters and their crews after a request from Paris.
(Reporting by Gabriel Stargardter, Sybille de la Hamaide, Sudip Kar-Gupta, Dominque Vidalon, Inti Landauro, Manuel Ausloos, Elizabeth Howcroft, Yves Hermann, David Latona, Emma Pinedo, Javi West Larrinaga and Emma Farge. Writing by Keith Weir. Editing by Andrei Khalip)
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