France, Spain race to contain ‘monster’ fires ahead of new heatwave

• Massive wildfires in south-west France and central Spain have forced over 325,000 people to flee, with some fires creating their own weather systems like pyrocumulonimbus clouds.
• Thousands of firefighters and specialised aircraft are battling the blazes, while French and Spanish leaders hold crisis meetings and visit affected areas.
• Climate change is intensifying these fires, with new heatwaves expected, causing extensive evacuations, property losses, and multiple deaths including two French firefighters.

BORDEAUX – Shelters in France and Spain on July 27 overflowed with exhausted locals and holidaymakers forced to flee blazes so massive some were forming their own mini weather systems, as the authorities warned a new heatwave was set to descend on parts of the region.

The fires tearing through forests in south-west France, around the prized wine-making region of Bordeaux, and in central Spain around the capital Madrid have been some of the worst in decades and have hit at the height of the summer holiday season.

More than 325,000 people have fled their homes in the face of the blazes feeding on forests left super-dry by successive heatwaves and lack of rain since May.

“Everyone had to get out of the village quickly – it was a critical situation and people were scared,” Olga Congacha, 50, told AFP on a highway in the Madrid region, where police had closed off access to her home, Robledo de Chavela.

“My husband and I left with all that we could grab – our important documents and some clothes.”

France’s fire has caused an unprecedented “pyrocumulonimbus” – a giant fire cloud that creates its own winds and packs lightning that causes more blazes, according to France’s national firefighters federation, who said the phenomenon had never before been seen in the country.

“It’s a David-versus-Goliath scenario... At some point, we’ll find a weak spot and strike there,” said federation spokesman Eric Brocardi.

Thousands of firefighters, backed by specialised water-bombing aircraft have been battling the blazes and the clouds of toxic smoke.

French President Emmanuel Macron will hold a crisis Cabinet meeting to discuss the emergency on the morning of July 27.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez will on July 27 visit fire-hit areas in Valencia, in the east of the country, where firefighters are battling a new blaze.

Spain’s civil protection chief Virginia Barcones on July 26 said the country was battling a “monster” in the fire around Avila.

“We are dealing with a perimeter of 280km encompassing 77,000ha,” Barcones told state broadcaster TVE.

‘Extremely intense’

Scientists say climate change is making such extreme weather events more frequent and intense.

In France, the prefect of the south-western Gironde region, where the country’s fires are concentrated, urged tourists to stay away and seek “other destinations”.

“The wind is changing so much, it’s really the fire calling the shots. We just have to go with it,” a firefighter said.

The fire has ravaged 42,000ha in Gironde – an area seven times the size of Manhattan – since July 22.

About 220,000 people have been evacuated in the region, with 45 campsites forced to shut, ruining the holiday plans of around 40,000 people. Another 30,000 people have been forced to flee fires in other regions in France.

The Gironde local authority said early on July 27 that the fire had remained “broadly stable” overnight.

Garden hose in hand, Georges Clivaz sprayed water along a road leading to his property in St-Jean-d’Illac in Gironde as the blaze burned a few kilometres away.

“We’re doing this to slow down the fire’s advance; we want to save our homes,” he told AFP.

Although the village was evacuated on July 24, Clivaz said he and his family were trying to hold out.

“But the firefighters are telling us that in two or three hours, the fire will be here.”

New heatwave

Weather forecasters warn that another heatwave could hit France from July 28, with temperatures reaching 40 deg C in some areas.

Around 75,000 residents have been evacuated from the Madrid region, Avila, Toledo and from the eastern region of Castellon in Valencia.

On July 27, the authorities said the fire “was not yet under control” but in a sign of progress said they would reopen a campsite where 4,500 people had been evacuated and also allow elderly residents back home in another area, if the conditions permit.

Officials said winds were pushing wildfires near Madrid to the south, away from the capital for now, but forcing more evacuations of villages in their path.

The fire near Valencia in Spain killed one person on July 25, the only civilian death reported so far in the blazes.

In France, two firefighters died near Bordeaux on July 21. AFP