Wildfires in France and Spain send more than 200,000 fleeing
France and Spain are battling fast-moving wildfires, with mass evacuations, military aircraft and foreign crews joining the fight.
By Georgia Hale · Staff Writer
3 min read
Wildfires in France and Spain forced more than 200,000 people from their homes and holiday spots on Saturday, as officials warned that heat, smoke and wind were keeping the emergency dangerous on both sides of the border.
In Spain, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez visited the fire zone near Madrid and said the government’s focus was to save lives. His administration declared a national emergency as crews tried to use milder weather to slow the flames.
Madrid residents woke to smoke and ash, with CBS News reporting that black ash covered roof terraces in the northern part of the capital’s center and that many people kept windows shut against the acrid air.
How many people have been evacuated from the France and Spain wildfires?
French Interior Minister Laurent Nunez said at least 167,000 people had been evacuated in France. Across France and Spain, CBS News reported that the total number of people forced to flee had risen above 200,000.
Nunez said nearly 242,000 acres had burned in France, calling it a historic record and comparing the area to almost 10 times the size of Paris. Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu described the fires as unprecedented and said the Gironde blaze had grown powerful enough to create its own winds.
Lecornu wrote on social media that protecting lives was the priority and that evacuation orders had to be obeyed immediately. French President Emmanuel Macron deployed 1,000 soldiers to support firefighters near Bordeaux, and the government ordered an A400M military transport aircraft into the firefighting fleet.
The adapted A400M can drop 20 tons of fire retardant, according to CBS News. AFP reported that about 100 firefighters from Paris were also being sent to southwestern France, joining 45 firefighters and six vehicles already dispatched.
Spain has already seen 130,000 hectares of forest burn this year, Sanchez said, above the 100,000-hectare annual average recorded over the past decade. He said better weather on Saturday gave crews a chance to make progress.
Residents were left waiting to learn what remained. Luis, an audiovisual technician who had helped evacuees from Pelayos de la Presa before being ordered out himself, told AFPTV that he first cried because the area was where he grew up, then felt anger and resignation because he could not return to see the damage.
European neighbors have sent aircraft to help. Italy said it deployed two Canadair water-bombing planes to Spain, while Spain’s Civil Protection Service said two planes from Greece were expected to join aircraft from the Netherlands and Portugal already in use.
- France was expecting two water-bombers from Croatia.
- Portugal was sending two additional aircraft to France.
- The Czech Republic and Slovakia were sending two heavy-lift Black Hawk helicopters.
Dozens of French firefighters have been injured, authorities said, though no deaths were reported in either France or Spain. Emergency shelters were opened in schools and gymnasiums in southwestern France for residents and tourists pushed out by the fires.
The conditions have been primed by repeated heatwaves since May. Scientists say climate change is making droughts worse and weather emergencies more frequent and more severe, and that Europe is the fastest-warming continent.
The fire danger extended beyond the two hardest-hit countries. In Italy, thousands of emergency workers were battling fires in Sicily and Calabria, where a local official said arsonists had used rags soaked in flammable liquid tied to stray cats to spread flames.
This story draws on original reporting from CBS News.