France firefighters contain Bordeaux wildfires as heatwave raises risk

Fire crews in southwestern France kept blazes near Bordeaux under control as temperatures were expected to climb above 104 degrees Fahrenheit, or 40C, on Wednesday, sharpening fears that the region’s fire front could flare again. The fires had already threatened Bordeaux’s outskirts, and officials faced a familiar summer problem: heat, dry vegetation and gusty winds can turn containment into a temporary victory.

The Gironde fire had grown to about four times the size of Paris, Reuters and AP-referenced coverage said, underscoring how quickly the outbreak spread across one of France’s most fire-prone corridors. Around 14,000 people were evacuated at one point, and later reporting put the total at about 55,000 people moved out of six towns as crews worked to hold the line around the city and nearby woodland.

France’s wider fire picture was just as stark. France 24 reported that 115,000 hectares had burned in wildfires across France since the start of the year, a figure Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez described as “far more than anything we have seen in the past”. The scale of the season has forced French authorities to juggle firefighting resources, heat alerts, evacuation planning and pressure on roads, utilities and health services at the same time.

The Bordeaux area’s alarm is rooted in recent history. In 2022, the Gironde and Landes fires burned about 16,000 hectares and killed one person. JRC/Copernicus wildfire data for that episode lists activation at 2022-07-16 15:06 UTC and says the Landiras fire had already burned more than 6,500 hectares while the La Teste de Buch fire had passed 3,100 hectares. Those fires turned the Bordeaux region into a repeat hotspot, and the latest flare-up revived memories of how fast conditions can unravel when extreme heat settles over tinder-dry land.

BBC reporting from the same period said firefighters were working around the clock in Gironde and bracing for another 40C heatwave. Reuters had already reported on July 25 that wildfires outside Bordeaux forced evacuations and threatened the city’s outskirts, and on July 26 that French firefighters were battling to keep the blazes from spreading farther. The immediate success in containing the flames has not erased the larger challenge: in a hotter, drier Europe, each heatwave leaves the next fire season more fragile, more expensive and harder to contain.