Firefighting efforts in southwestern France continued Friday as crews worked to contain forest fires that have burned across 100,000 acres of woodland, villages, and farmland over the preceding week. Officials reported four active hotspots remaining in the Gironde region, with some zones still presenting access difficulties for emergency responders. Authorities expressed optimism about achieving full control of the blazes by the weekend, with the overall situation described as having stabilized.
Mass evacuations near Bordeaux were substantially lifted, allowing approximately 84,000 residents to return to their homes on Thursday night, with an additional 60,000 having been permitted to return earlier in the week. Officials stated there were no confirmed civilian casualties, though two firefighters died battling a fire near Bordeaux-Merignac Airport earlier in July. Some individuals remained in temporary shelters at facilities including the Bordeaux convention center.
The French wildfires are part of a broader pattern of extreme weather affecting multiple European countries. A separate wildfire in southeastern France forced evacuations this week, while Greece experienced fires on the island of Crete and the mainland that resulted in three firefighter deaths. Germany and Turkey also reported active forest fires, and England faced a major blaze near the Sizewell B nuclear power station in Suffolk that threatened over 350 acres.
The widespread fires coincide with severe drought conditions and heatwave temperatures across Europe. Hungary announced plans to shut down its sole nuclear power plant due to record-low water levels in the Danube River needed for cooling, and Romania similarly shut down reactors at its Cernavoda facility for the same reason. England’s Environment Agency declared half the country in drought status.
Scientists with World Weather Attribution concluded that human-induced climate change substantially increased the likelihood of current fire-prone conditions, making such weather patterns at least twice as likely in southwestern France and at least 20 times as likely in central Spain. Spain experienced major wildfires earlier in the month that displaced tens of thousands of residents, with at least one fatality reported.
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