Firefighters in France battle wildfires amid sweltering heat

French firefighters were battling two gigantic forest fires on Monday that have ravaged nearly 100 km² of dry pine forest in southwestern France over the past week and forced more than 30 000 people to evacuate.

Around 1,700 firefighters from across France have been deployed to the Gironde region, a coastal area around Bordeaux, in an attempt to contain the raging flames. A dozen firefighters were slightly injured.

"We are facing an exceptional situation," Gironde fire chief Marc Vermeulen told reporters on Monday.< /p>

He said the fires have become increasingly difficult to contain over the past few days as temperatures soar and erratic gusts of wind scatter embers on a water-starved forest of resinous trees.

"The fact that every afternoon the fire explodes and takes back all the ground we gained during at night or in the morning, it's exhausting,” Vermeulen said. But, he added, "we will hold on".

Dark plumes of smoke filled the sky as water bomber planes buzzed overhead. over their heads on Monday, going back and forth to dive into the ocean and fill their water tanks to fight the fires. The fires closed some roads; others were blocked by winding lines of cars leaving the area.

The fires caused no fatalities and caused minimal damage to buildings.

But local authorities braced for the worst when the heat wave hit with full force on Monday. Authorities have announced the evacuation of thousands more people from towns that were in the path of the fires.

"It's going to be a complicated night", Fabienne Buccio, the prefect, or senior state official, for the Gironde, told reporters. "With the wind, the fire spreads on all its flanks."

One ​​of the fires was concentrated near La Teste-de-Buch, south of the Arcachon basin, a popular holiday destination with beaches of sand and dozens of campsites popular with tourists in the summer.

Many holidaymakers have been forced to evacuate in recent days. Fifty people slept in temporary shelters that had been set up in gymnasiums or leisure centers overnight, local authorities said.

Le Zoo du Bassin d 'Arcachon should also evacuate its 800 animals out of danger, the French association of zoos said, adding that other zoos in the country would send vets, trucks and crates to help.

Although the fire has not reached the zoo, clouds of potentially toxic smoke could be approaching, and "all means are being used to evacuate as many animals as possible starting today". specifies the association in a press release. A command post set up by firefighters in the zoo parking lot has been closed for three days.

The second fire, located further inland near the town of Landiras, left a desolate landscape of scorched tree trunks and scorched earth.

Jean-Marc Pelletant, the mayor of Landiras, told the BFMTV news channel on Monday afternoon that the town was almost empty but that he was still there, trying to convince a handful of reluctant residents to evacuate.

"The captain does not leave the ship", he said.