More than 160,000 people have been forced to leave their homes in France and Spain following outbreaks of large, out-of-control wildfires. The situation in the affected regions requires urgent measures to ensure the safety of the population, with evacuations carried out in several phases to prevent loss of life and material damage.
During the night leading into Saturday, an additional evacuation was conducted from seven municipalities near the city of Bordeaux. Among them are larger settlements such as Mérignac with 78,000 residents and Eysines with 24,800, which have been partially affected by the fire. Smaller municipalities such as Saint-Médard-en-Jalles (33,000), Le Haïnan (11,400) and Saint-Jean-d’Illac (9,600) have seen the complete evacuation of their residents.
Sophie Brocas, the president of the Gironde department in south-west France, confirmed that residents of Martignas-sur-Mer (8,000) and Saint-Aubin-de-Médoc (7,800) had also been forced to leave their homes. The affected area is a popular tourist destination, which further complicates the logistics of evacuation and the provision of temporary accommodation for thousands of people.
The French prime minister, Sébastien Lecornu, announced a significant reinforcement of security forces following a meeting of the interministerial crisis unit on Friday evening. It is planned that the number of military personnel deployed to assist firefighters will increase from the current 500 to a total of 1,000 in the departments of Gironde and Landes, to more effectively combat the wildfires.
