Massive wildfires force quarter-million from homes across southwest France and Spain

Authorities in France’s Gironde region have ordered the evacuation of an additional 55,000 residents overnight Sunday as a sprawling wildfire advances across the southwest, bringing total displacements in the region to 220,000 people. The flames have pushed to within 15 kilometers of Bordeaux, the historic wine city that lies in the path of the advancing fire, prompting officials to issue emergency orders for five more communities near the metropolitan area.

The conflagration, which began mid-week and has burned approximately 42,000 hectares or 162 square miles by Sunday morning, has been driven by gusty winds and fueled by pine forests and scrubland parched by successive heat waves. The burned area exceeds seven times the size of Manhattan and quadruples the footprint of Paris, according to the Gironde prefecture.

Firefighting operations on the ground and in the air, including water-dropping aircraft and retardant missions, continue around the clock with military reinforcements aiding exhausted crews. Gironde officials have partially closed a major highway serving the city as fire officials describe the threat as now positioned at “the gates of the metropolitan area.”

A separate wildfire burning farther south in the Landes region has forced 30,000 additional evacuations this week, bringing the total number of displaced residents across southwest France to more than 250,000. In neighboring Spain, uncontrolled fires in the Valencia region and west of Madrid have driven 116,000 people from their homes, with authorities conducting new evacuation rounds as blazes continue to spread.