President Emmanuel Macron has called an urgent meeting of the French cabinet to address the wildfires threatening Bordeaux. Firefighters are working overnight to contain the flames as the city faces a serious risk.
The fires come amid record-breaking heatwaves across Europe, forcing evacuations in France and Spain. Authorities warn that another heatwave is expected later this week, increasing the challenge of controlling the blazes.
President Emmanuel Macron has called a crisis meeting of the French cabinet to coordinate efforts to contain massive wildfires ravaging the country’s southwest, as firefighters race to prevent the flames from reaching the historic city of Bordeaux.
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Forecasts that another heatwave will hit France later in the week have added to the urgency of Monday’s meeting.
Firefighters battled the blaze throughout the night, and the provincial authority of Gironde, the wine-growing region that includes Bordeaux, said the situation remained “broadly stable”.
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Bordeaux Mayor Thomas Cazenave said on Sunday that the fire “is still at the gates of the metropolitan area”.
At their closest point, the flames were 15km (9 miles) from metropolitan Bordeaux, which is home to about 850,000 people.
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Footage of the wildfires shows scenes of widespread destruction, with thick clouds of smoke obscuring the sky and large areas of forest where the trees are engulfed by flames.
“This is a fire of a size never seen before,” said Jerome Steffe, the mayor of Cestas, a suburb just outside Bordeaux city.
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Wildfires in France and Spain have caused widespread disruption, upending lives and forcing more than 300,000 people to flee their homes. The blazes come as Europe experiences record-breaking temperatures, with scientists warning that extreme heat is drying out the continent.
Europe has already experienced three heatwaves this summer, which have fuelled the wildfires. Several countries have set new temperature records.
In Spain, more than 75,000 people have been evacuated from their homes. Some of the worst blazes are getting closer to Madrid but have “slowed their advance”, the regional government said on Monday.
“It looked like the apocalypse,” said 35-year-old Rocio Dominguez, who fled her house in Chapineria, west of Madrid, with her two dogs. “You couldn’t see anything. Everything was covered in ash.”
Authorities say they will begin allowing some people evacuated from Madrid to return to their homes.
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