French Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu has ordered the armed forces to deploy an A400M military transport aircraft as early as Saturday to help combat fires raging in the southwest, his office said. Intense wildfires have forced more than 200,000 people to flee their homes in southwestern France and central Spain. Follow our liveblog for all the latest updates.
Another 10,000 people evacuated in Spain
Spain evacuated another 10,000 people because of wildfires near Madrid, bringing the total to more than 45,000, the country’s interior ministry Fernando Grande-Marlaska said Saturday.
The ministry said in a statement that fires in the province of Avila near the capital forced the evacuation of seven more villages.
Nearly 98,000 hectares burned in France, a ‘historic record’
French Interior Minister Laurent Nunez said that the French fires had ravaged nearly 98,000 hectares (242,000 acres) — a “historic record” nearly 10 times the size of the city of Paris.
“There are still a number of fires across the country that have not yet been brought under control,” he said, singling out major blazes in the southwestern departments of Gironde and Landes.
Scotland declares ‘major’ wildfire in Cairngorms national park
Scottish firefighters fought on Saturday against a wildfire burning through the Cairngorms national park in the north, with the authorities advising locals to evacuate.
The Scottish police have declared a “major incident” over the blaze, which has spread across some 600 hectares of the Highland park’s heather and brush since being declared 10 days ago.
More than 500 firefighters have been deployed alongside helicopters to douse the flames in the Cairngorms, a mountain range west of Aberdeen which has long been a tourist attraction.
After chairing a crisis meeting on Friday evening, Scottish First Minister John Swinney called the efforts to tackle the fire “a complex and difficult situation”.
But in a post on X on Saturday he also said “there has welcome change in wind direction overnight which has reduced the immediate threat” to the Highland village of Nethy Bridge.
The authorities ordered Nethy Bridge’s some 650-strong population to leave “as a precaution”.
Spain PM says priority is to ‘save lives’ in wildfires
Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said the priority in tackling the wildfires raging west of Madrid was to “save lives”, warning that a “complex” fight lay ahead.
“Our priority, our thinking, our aim is for your lives, to save your lives and protect inhabited areas,” Sanchez told reporters in a village in the fire zone.
“We are going to have some complex hours ahead because although the temperatures have gone down, we do not know exactly how the wind will develop, how strong it will be.”
Paris sends 100 firefighters to battle southwest fires
Around 100 Paris firefighters were being deployed Saturday to southwest France to help battle raging wildfires, the head of the Paris Fire Brigade told AFP.
Hundreds of firefighters have spent the past three days battling blazes in the southwestern department of Gironde, where the fires are particularly intense, as well as since Thursday near the town of Biscarrosse in the neighbouring department of Landes.
Arnaud de Cacqueray, commander of the Paris Fire Brigade, said the firefighters would primarily be involved in wildfire suppression operations.
He said 45 Paris firefighters and six vehicles had already been deployed to Gironde.
De Cacqueray said he expected the deployment to have an impact on response times in Paris, adding people should contact firefighters in the capital “only in cases of absolute emergency”.
Fires in Madrid region, and Avila have burned up to 25,000 hectares, government says
Wildfires raging west of Madrid have burned up to 25,000 hectares, the Spanish interior ministry.
Flames have ravaged nearly 10,000 hectares in the Madrid region and “between 13,000 and 15,000” in the neighbouring province of Avila, the ministry said in a message sent to journalists.
The total is more than twice the surface area of the city of Paris.
French PM orders deployment of A400M military plane to help battle fires
French Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu has ordered the armed forces to deploy an A400M military transport aircraft as early as Saturday to help combat fires raging in the southwest, his office said.
The aircraft is to be equipped with a dispensing kit that can release 20 tonnes of fire retardant, equivalent to the capacity of two Dash firefighting aircraft. Its deployment had previously been scheduled for the end of the month due to preparations and testing.
🎥 Climatologist warms of heatwaves, wildfires and rising risks in Europe
Jean-Pascal Van Ypersele, professor of climatology and environmental science at UCLouvain, spoke to FRANCE 24 about the role of the climate crisis in driving the exceptional scale of the heatwaves and wildfires that have hit Europe.
Overnight change in weather conditions ‘greatly aided the fight against the wildfires’, Spanish official says
The Spanish government delegation in Madrid said on X that overnight conditions had “greatly aided the fight against the wildfires, which advanced little and decreased in intensity”.
It listed 10 villages in the Madrid region that had been evacuated and three where residents had been ordered to stay at home.
The Madrid regional government said on X that more than 2,000 people were being looked after in 14 emergency evacuation centres.
🎥 ‘The problem has been extremely high winds’: Wildfires sweep through southwest France
FRANCE 24 reporter Luke Shrago talks about the “tinder-box dry conditions” that have fuelled the wildfires approaching the city of Bordeaux in France’s southwest.
French wildfires ‘have reached a level that has never been seen before’, PM says
French Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu said that more than 141,000 people had so far been evacuated from the Gironde and Landes regions which lie close to Bordeaux, and where the wildfires first broke out this week.
“The fires which are hitting our country have reached a level that has never been seen before,” Lecornu wrote on X on Saturday.
Suburbs around Bordeaux evacuated as wildfires rage
French authorities evacuated thousands of people from suburbs near Bordeaux as wildfires in areas around the city showed no signs of abating.
Sophie Brocas, who heads the local administration of La Nouvelle-Aquitaine et de la Gironde which covers the Bordeaux region, said on X that the areas of Le Haillan, Eysines and Merignac were being cleared out.
🎥 ‘It smells of burning’: Thousands evacuated as wildfires rage around Madrid
FRANCE 24’s Madrid correspondent Sarah Morris shares the latest updates about firefighters’ efforts to contain historic wildfires raging near the Spanish capital.
Spain official warns winds could worsen fire
A Spanish official warned that erratic winds threatened to fan the wildfires raging around Madrid further as firefighters worked to get control of the blaze.
With temperatures dipping, “there is a real opportunity now to tackle this fire with some guarantee of success”, the central government’s delegate in Madrid, Francisco Martin, told reporters late Friday.
On Friday, “the temperature has dropped, the wind has eased and the relative humidity has risen,” he said.
But he warned that Saturday would be “difficult” as “the wind is expected to rise in the morning, with rather erratic gusts”.
France orders evacuations near Bordeaux due to wildfires
French authorities ordered the evacuation of towns near the southwestern city of Bordeaux “as a precaution”, as wildfires moved towards the area.
The traffic information website Bison Futé urged drivers to avoid roads in the Gironde department, where Bordeaux is located, to free up access for emergency services.
French President Emmanuel Macron ordered the military to mobilise as wildfires ripped through France‘s southwest, threatening villages and approaching the city of Bordeaux.
The Spanish government declared a “national emergency” in the Madrid region and in the province of Avila, near the capital.
Some 110,000 people were evacuated from areas threatened by wildfires in France’s southwest that have scorched 14,000 hectares.
