Wildfire near Arcachon Bay forces thousands to evacuate in southwest France

About 20,000 people were evacuated from towns and vacation resorts along the French Atlantic coast as a wildfire near Arcachon Bay tore through Gironde and turned one of southwest France’s busiest holiday zones into an emergency evacuation corridor. The fire struck during peak travel season, when campsites and seaside towns were packed with visitors.

The blaze broke out Wednesday, July 22, and had burned about 2,400 hectares of vegetation by Thursday, July 23. Another 7,000 people were moved out that day, bringing the total evacuated to 12,000 before the number climbed higher as the response widened. Many of those forced out were tourists staying at campsites on the Lège-Cap-Ferret peninsula, while others were residents and visitors in the Le Porge area.

Smoke rose over the pine-forested coast west of Bordeaux, where firefighters and local officials had to keep roads open both for emergency vehicles and for the people being moved out. Campsites were cleared as a precaution, and evacuees faced rushed departures, traffic congestion and the possibility of leaving behind vehicles, documents and belongings as flames and shifting winds moved through the region.

The fire also landed in an area already under exceptional drought and heat-related fire danger, with tinder-box conditions across southwest France. The strain on emergency crews came just days after two firefighters died near Bordeaux-Mérignac Airport in a separate blaze.

Gironde has seen this before. In July 2022, about 38,500 people were evacuated during major wildfires, many of them holidaymakers at campsites near the Dune du Pilat. Those fires were France’s worst in 30 years.