The flames burn more than 6,800 hectares in the Gironde region and force the evacuation of 10,000 people
The flames threaten again Gironde region of France (southwest), which already suffered a wave of fires in July. Since Tuesday night, a vast fire has been burning in the area of the town of Hostens, about 60 kilometers south of Bordeaux. you call them now they burned about 6,800 hectares, the Gironde prefecture reported on Thursday morning, and they continue to grow. French President Emmanuel Macron has announced that Germany, Greece, Poland, Romania, Austria and Italy will help French firefighters to put out this gigantic fire. “France activated the civil protection mechanism of the European Union against the fires,” said the leader.
L’Allemagne, la Grèce, la Pologne, et dans les prochaines heures la Roumanie et l’Autriche: our partners come to help France face aux incendies. Merci à eux. European solidarity is at work!
— Emmanuel Macron (@EmmanuelMacron) August 11, 2022
Near 1,100 firefighters are deployed to deal with the flames, local authorities said. They promised “supplemental reinforcements” to be added to the Canadair planes, water bombing helicopters and other means used. Despite its size, the fire has not caused fatalities so far and only three firefighters have been injured, two of them slightly. Almost 10,000 people have been evacuated due to a fire that on Wednesday headed towards the French A63 motorway, causing the road to be closed in both directions from exit 9, at the height of the municipality of Saint-Geourgs-de-Maremne.
The flames also affected traffic at the Biriatou border crossing, near Irun, in the Basque Country, despite being about 200 kilometers from the fire area. The Ertzaintza traffic service reported this Thursday morning that trucks were prohibited from passing through that point on the border between Spain and France. But at noon it announced its reopening. A similar situation had already occurred on Wednesday, which caused even five kilometers of retentions on the AP-8. It cannot be ruled out that it will be repeated due to the intensity of the fire.
Record number of hectares burned in France
“The situation is very unfavorable,” acknowledged Colonel Arnaud Mendousse, head of communication for the Gironde departmental fire and emergency service. In fact, the advance of the flames is favored by the heatwave temperatures in this department, where maximum temperatures have been recorded this Thursday close to 40 degrees. Something unusual in the southwest of France.
Another wave of fires had already burned 14,000 hectares in this same area in July, which was not usually affected by fires of this type. According to data from European satellites, this year there have already been burned up to 50,000 hectares of Gallic territory. Although there are more than five weeks to go until the end of the summer, this figure is three times higher than the area that used to be affected by fires in the neighboring country, according to an average of the last decade. It represents a record for France.
“We are reinforcing our means and acting on all fronts to fight better in the future” against the fires, assured the prime minister Elizabeth Bornewho traveled this Thursday to the southwest, together with the Minister of the Interior, Gerald Darmanin.
Given the current wave of fires, which is also affecting the Brittanythe aveyron (central-south) or the Drome (Southeast), the Executive received criticism from lack of preparation and of not having provided sufficient means firefighters in the face of a 2022 marked by drought and high temperatures, both associated with climate change. France has about 50,000 professional firefighters, in addition to some 200,000 volunteer reservists. The number of French firefighting agents fell in the last decade marked by austerity policies (with the exception of covid-19) and the containment of public spending