France orders new evacuations as wildfires threaten Bordeaux region

French authorities ordered nearly 4,000 more people to leave tourist sites on the Atlantic coast Tuesday as firefighters raced to contain a vast wildfire west of Bordeaux before another surge of heat and dry winds.

The evacuations covered campsites, holiday villages, tourist residences and leisure parks around the resort of Lacanau, including Lacanau Ocean and both shores of Lacanau lake, Gironde regional authorities said. Those ordered out were in addition to about 220,000 people evacuated around France in recent days, according to officials cited by the BBC.

The fire in the Gironde region has burned through countryside between the Atlantic coast and Bordeaux and remained dangerous despite signs of progress overnight. NPR reported that firefighters kept the burned area unchanged at 420 square kilometers, or 162 square miles, after bringing flare-ups near coastal dunes under control. Authorities described the blaze as stabilized, not fixed, meaning it could spread again as temperatures rise and humidity falls.

“We are at a point of fragility,” Eric Brocardi, spokesperson for France’s national firefighters federation, told BFMTV, according to NPR. “We will continue attacking this fire despite the forecast rise in temperatures.”

Brocardi told the BBC the fight was “like David against Goliath.” He said four firefighters had died in recent weeks across France and 2,000 had been deployed in Gironde. The prefecture said 93 firefighters have been injured battling the blaze.

Firefighters and military engineers resumed work Tuesday on tactical firebreaks intended to stop the flames from spreading. Authorities said 103 kilometers, or 64 miles, of firebreaks had been completed. The A63 highway remained partly closed, and rail traffic south of Bordeaux was suspended except on the route toward Toulouse.

Bordeaux, a city of 260,000 people, is not currently under threat, officials said. But Commander Rémi Lassoureille, who is leading the firefighting response in Gironde, told the BBC he was worried about the western edge of the fire. “We are frightened about the impact on Bordeaux and the metropolitan area,” he said. One fire burning Monday was 15 kilometers, or 9 miles, from the city’s periphery, where air quality has deteriorated sharply.

A holidaymaker from Essex told the BBC the air in Bordeaux was “really smoky” with bits of ash and said the city had become “eerie, and very sad.” Graham White, president of the Bordeaux British Community, said shops, restaurants and cafes were fairly empty, though he added that some reports had overstated the danger to the city.

President Emmanuel Macron, who visited the fire-ravaged Gironde region Monday, called the wildfire “completely unprecedented” and the “toughest since World War Two,” according to the BBC. Health Minister Stéphanie Rist said the government was being “very vigilant” about air pollution and urged people in affected areas to stay indoors.

The return of heat could test recent gains. The BBC reported that France’s fourth heatwave of the summer was expected to begin by Wednesday, with temperatures in the area reaching 40 C. NPR reported that France’s national weather service placed Gironde under a yellow heat warning from midday Tuesday, forecasting inland temperatures of 33 to 35 C and southeast winds.

In neighboring Landes, officials allowed about 15,000 people to return home after a separate wildfire was fixed, meaning its advance had stopped and no new fires were breaking out. Authorities warned it was not extinguished and said surveillance and damping-down operations could continue for days or weeks.

The wildfire emergency extends into Spain, where authorities have evacuated about 79,000 people and ordered another 30,000 to remain indoors, NPR reported. Spain entered its fourth heatwave of the summer Tuesday, with temperatures expected to exceed 40 C in some areas. The government said a fire in Ávila, west of Madrid, has become Spain’s largest on record, burning more than 500 square kilometers.

“Look at how the valley is burned. Look at the houses, the people,” said David Gonzalez, a 48-year-old gardener who delivered supplies to firefighters in Ávila. “We are feeling a lot of anger and helplessness. It’s something inhuman.”