An ‘apocalyptic’ wildfire bearing down on Bordeaux is so big it is generating its own thunderstorms, with 38C heat threatening to fan the flames of the terrifying blaze.
More than 325,000 people have fled the region, in southern France, as the inferno burns down forests and destroys villages.
Firefighters are struggling to contain the flames, which stretch kilometres, leading volunteers, including local farmers, to help all they can.
Convoys of tractors were spotted driving through towns on Sunday towing huge water tankers in an effort to reinforce the fire crews heroically battling the blaze, injuring 75 and killing two.
One farmer was pictured wearing personal protective equipment as prepared to drive into the inferno to reinforce crews with water.
Some 2,500 firefighters, 1,500 military personnel and around 1,200 police have been deployed to the Gironde region.
It ranks among one of the worst fires to hit France in peacetime down on Bordeaux: Inferno so big it generates its own thunderstorms threatens entire city as Italy and Spain also continue attempts to suppress their own terrifying infernos.
The Bordeaux blaze has caused an unprecedented ‘pyrocumulonimbus’ – a gigantic fire cloud that creates its own winds and packs lightning that causes more fires.
Bordeaux Council is considering a total evacuation of the city where more than 270,000 people live. So far, over 300,000 residents have been evacuated between France and Spain
Burning forest near the town of Lege-Cap-Ferret, southwestern France yesterday
Firefighters in Lege-Cap-Ferret, where 2,000 military personnel have been deployed to aid emergency services in an unprecedented situation in France
But despite the efforts of emergency services, who have been battling the fire for days now, 38C temperatures threaten to spread the flames.
Eric Brocardi, of the National Firefighters Federation of France (FNSPF), said: ‘It’s a David-versus-Goliath scenario… at some point, we’ll find a weak spot and strike there.’
It comes as France enters its fourth heatwave this summer, spreading panic as wildfires across the country destroy thousands of tonnes of crops – leading to fears of vegetable shortages on supermarket shelves.
French president Emmanuel Macron has called a Monday morning crisis meeting with his cabinet to discuss the emergency.
Scientists say climate change is making such extreme weather events more frequent and intense.
Coming at the height of the summer holiday season, the fires were fuelled by woodland parched to tinder by successive heatwaves and lack of rain since May.
The prefect of the southwestern Gironde region where the country’s fires are concentrated urged tourists to stay away and seek ‘alternative destinations’.
Residents are desperately doing what they can to prevent the spread of the fire to their homes – armed only with their hosepipes.
Local man Georges Clivaz sprayed water along a road leading to his property in Saint-Jean-d’Illac as the blaze burned a few kilometres away.
He said: ‘We’re doing this to slow down the fire’s advance; we want to save our homes.’
Although the village was evacuated on Friday, Mr Clivaz said he and his family were trying to hold out.
‘But,’ he said, ‘the firefighters are telling us that in two or three hours the fire will be here.’
Interior minister Laurent Nunez warned that ‘the situation remains very unfavourable’ across France, where more than 250,000 people had been evacuated.
The main fire in Gironde, home to Bordeaux, was ‘extremely intense and unpredictable… generating its own winds and advancing erratically toward the Bordeaux metropolitan area’, said Mr Nunez.
Since Wednesday, the fire in the Gironde region has injured 75 firefighters, ten of whom have been evacuated, according to the latest situation report published on Sunday by the prefecture.
It comes amid claims from the leader of France’s CFDT union, Sebastien Bouvier, that firefighters are not adequately equipped to protect themselves from the fire’s toxic fumes.
A farmer in Bordeaux is pictured kitting up into his firefighter gear and joining efforts to suppress the wildfire flames
Footage posted on social media has shown a convoy of tractors reinforcing fire crews
The tractors were carrying huge water tankers to reinforce fire crews on the frontline of the blaze
Smoke from nearby wilfires has covered the skyline of the city of Bordeaux
The closed A63 highway near Cestas, southern of Bordeaux, on Sunday as a wildfire ravages the forest north of the Arcachon Basin (Gironde)
People gather at an exhibition centre being used for people displaced by the wildfires, in Bordeaux
Thousands of people evacuated from their homes rest at the Bordeaux Exhibition Centre, which has been converted into a temporary emergency shelter
Bordeaux is facing the evacuation of more than 270,000 residents amid ‘apocalyptic’ wildfires
More than 2,500 firefighters are battling a 20km-wide front of flames that is spreading towards Bordeaux in southwestern France
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Meanwhile, Sebastien Berge, head of the Gironde firefighters union, said: ‘The firefighters are overwhelmed.
‘When there’s a fire of this magnitude, it creates its own weather pattern… it’s difficult to monitor – especially when there’s a fire front that stretches for more than 20km.
‘When you see how far it’s spreading, I think we can now be concerned about the city of Bordeaux.’
Firefighters have become ‘overwhelmed’ and are ‘concerned’ about Bordeaux as they fight back the fires spreading out of control in southwestern France.
Weather forecasters warn another heatwave could hit France from Tuesday, with temperatures reaching 40C in some areas.
At least 240 homes have been destroyed in Gironde region, many of them in village of Le Porge.
But the mayor of Bordeaux, Thomas Cazenave, said there were no plans to evacuate the city’s urban area, home to 850,000 people and sheltering thousands displaced by the fires.
He warned on Sunday that the fire ‘is now at the city’s gates’ and said the authorities remained ‘very vigilant’ and ‘ready for anything’.
Mr Cazenave told reporters at a shelter for people displaced by the wildfires that the blaze is further south.
‘It is still on the edge of the metropolitan area, but it is not advancing on the western side of the metropolis,’ he said.
The French defence ministry said it has taken special steps to protect industrial sites around the city, a key centre of its aerospace industry.
The main motorway south of Bordeaux and rail services have been cut.
As the flames edged closer to city’s borders on Sunday, Bordeaux’s world-famous vineyards, that define the region’s identity, are also now under threat of destruction.
At Château Haut-Bacalan, the western-most vineyard in Bordeaux, owner Charles-Henri Gonet said the blaze is now just 10km (six miles) from his estate, which lies surrounded by dense pine forests in the direct path of the inferno.
After friends in nearby Saint-Jean-d’Illac were forced to flee their homes, Mr Gonet, 63, is waiting for the emergency SMS alert telling him to evacuate.
His 18th-century château, where he has lived since 1998 with his co-owner wife, Corinne, sits on an eight-hectare estate producing around 20,000 bottles of Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon and Sauvignon Blanc each year, with wines exported around the world.
Charles-Henri Gonet, 63, runs the Château Haut-Bacalan vineyard with his wife, Corinne, which is just 10km (six miles) from the wildfire
Mr Gonet is yet to be evacuated but is waiting for the SMS alert to vacate, having friends nearby already forced to flee their homes
The remnants of a burned-out home and cars following a devastating wildfire in Pelayos de la Presa, 65km west of Madrid
Only the walls remain of this house following a wildfire in Le Porge, in the Gironde region of France
Firefighters launched an aerial and ground response to contain a wildfire that broke out in scrubland near Torretta, outside Palermo on the island of Sicily, Italy, on Sunday. The island has also been hit by wildfires
Fire engines and two firefighting aircraft were deployed as the blaze threatened nearby residential areas
While he believes the vines themselves are unlikely to burn, he fears the thick smoke could irreparably damage this year’s harvest just weeks before the grapes are due to be picked.
He said: ‘We have to hope for some rain between now and harvest to wash the smoke from the grapes, otherwise there’s a danger that some of them will be ruined.
‘In Bordeaux, traditional winemaking relies on natural rainfall so that roots grow deep into the soil to absorb unique minerals. By law we cannot water them ourselves.’
Smoke taint occurs when grapevines absorb compounds from wildfire smoke which later create burnt, smoky and ashy flavours during fermentation.
Mr Gonet said the smoke arrived suddenly on Friday evening.
‘One minute it was daylight and the next we were shrouded in darkness. I could only see about 200m [65ft] in front of me and motorists had to put on their headlights. We could really smell the smoke and there was ash falling too.’
Smoke from the inferno has already been billowing into the sky above the city and sinking into its streets, which has caused concern among residents who may be hit with respiratory problems.
Mr Gonet said on Sunday he and his wife have already packed their bags in case they receive an evacuation order overnight.
He said: ‘We are the most westerly of all the Bordeaux vineyards and at the moment the closest to the fire, which is about 10km or 12km away.
‘It was heading right for us, but the wind direction is changing all the time and fortunately the flames have started to head south and west of us.
‘The areas around us have already evacuated. We have places we can go. It’s just a case of waiting for the phone alert.’
He also warned of another potential danger if the fire continues to spread.
‘There is a factory producing gunpowder close to Bordeaux airport. If that catches fire… everyone is in trouble.’
Firefighters are continuing to battle the advancing blaze from the ground and air, with water-bombing aircraft, including a converted A400M military transport plane, dropping water and flame retardant over the forests as crews attempt to slow its advance toward the city.
A further 55,000 people were ordered to evacuate the city late on Sunday night, taking the total to 250,000 forced to flee their homes in the Gironde region.
Some 500 French military personnel were deployed to aid firefighters on Friday, and a further 1,500 were sent on Monday evening following a ‘crisis meeting’ held in Paris.
Mr Nunez said a hulking A400M military transport aircraft will join 18 other water and retardant-dropping planes and helicopters waging an expected ‘long and very difficult’ battle against the blaze in the Gironde region.
As of Sunday evening, Mr Nunez said that 98,000 hectares have been burned in the wildfire.
The final leg of the Tour de France, which took place on Sunday, had been shortened from 113km (83 miles) to 89km (55 miles) so that security forces can be redeployed to areas affected by the fire.
Across Europe, Spain and Italy are fighting their own battles against wildfires wreaking havoc thousands of people.
Spain’s interior minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska said on Sunday evening that the fires were advancing, but slowly.
Firefighters there were battling a new blaze near the eastern coastal city of Valencia, where 15,000 people have been forced to flee their homes.
‘Difficult hours lie ahead,’ Spanish prime minister Pedro Sanchez said as he visited the fire zone in Avila province west of Madrid Sunday. He is due to visit affected areas in Valencia on Monday.
Describing the fire around Avila, civil protection chief Virginia Barcones said the country was battling a ‘monster’.
‘We are dealing with a perimeter of 280 kilometres encompassing 77,000 hectares,’ Barcones told state broadcaster TVE of the wildfire.
Other EU countries have sent aircraft, crews and vehicles to help both countries.
The first death of the wildfires was recorded yesterday in Spain, where a man – believed to be in his 70s – was found in a car in a ravine in the Spanish town of Manises near Valencia following a forest fire, according to the local fire brigade.
Ms Grande-Marlaska told local press: ‘It has not been a positive day. The weather conditions have been absolutely difficult.
‘If it hasn’t got worse, it’s thanks to the work of all the emergency services.’
Wind gusts yesterday blew the flames south, and Mr Grande-Marlaska warned yesterday that ‘the night is not going to be very positive or very friendly to us.’
Nearly 60,000 people have been evacuated from the Madrid and Ávila regions, while more than 28,000 remain confined to their homes, according to Spain’s interior ministry.
Eight municipalities near Toledo were ordered to evacuate late last night, but it is not clear how many that involved.
Mr Sánchez said that 130,000 hectares have been reduced to ash in the fires – ahead of the annual average of 100,000 hectares.
Officials voiced optimism they were starting to get a grip on some fires – though a new blaze near the eastern coastal city of Valencia forced 15,000 people to flee over the weekend.
King Felipe VI, visiting an emergency shelter on Madrid’s western outskirts, said the wildfires had caused ‘incalculable’ damage to Spain’s natural heritage.
Around 75,000 residents have been evacuated from the Madrid region, Avila, Toledo and from the eastern region of Castellon in Valencia.
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.
One person was killed on Saturday in a separate, smaller fire near Valencia, the only civilian death so far reported in the wildfires. In France, two firefighters were killed near Bordeaux on Tuesday.
Pope Leo IV, in his prayers on Sunday, expressed solidarity with all those affected by the ‘devastating’ Spanish and French fires and called on people to pray for them and first responders.
Pilar, a 69-year-old New Zealand tourist who declined to give her last name, said: ‘When we flew into Madrid we could see the fire very close to the airport.’
Letisha Lucas, a 33-year-old tourist from Canada said the smoke smell was obvious on arrival in Madrid, irritating her throat.
The wildfires ravaging areas around Spain’s capital Madrid have included the largest forest fire in the country’s recent history, a government official said on Sunday.
Sara Aagesen, minister for ecological transition, told journalists the part of the wildfires affecting 50,000 hectares of the Avila area west of Madrid was ‘the largest forest fire in our country’s recent history’.
She did not define the extent of damage or burned land in the total of 77,000 hectares she said had been ‘affected’ in the Madrid, Avila and Toledo regions hit by the wildfires.
Italy was facing its own fires as more than 400 tourists and beachgoers were evacuated by sea near the town of Peschici in the southern Puglia region, with 300 more expected to be rescued, said the coastguard.
Wildfires have also taken hold in Italy where more than 350 fires – including ten major fires – ignited on the island of Sicily.
Hundreds of people were evacuated by sea on Sunday as a wildfire swept through parts of the southern Adriatic coast, with many more expected to be rescued, the coastguard said.
‘More than 400 tourists and beachgoers have been evacuated by sea, the only viable evacuation route,’ the coastguard said, adding that operations were ongoing.
Evacuees were being rescued from the area around the town of Peschici in the southern Puglia region.
A coastguard spokesman said that around 300 more people were expected to be evacuated.
Six coastguard vessels, three boats from Italy’s financial police and around 10 private vessels were involved in the operation.
Images showed firefighters and a Canadair waterbomber battling the blaze, which was not immediately threatening homes in the town.
A huge plume of smoke could be seen from dozens of kilometres away.
‘The situation is currently under control,’ Peschici mayor Luigi d’Arenzo said.
Fires have also taken hold in the UK as the Cairngorms National Park has been burning for the last 11 days. Emergency services declared it a major incident on Friday.
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