EUROPE – Wildfires across Spain and France have forced more than 200 000 people from their homes, with authorities deploying military aircraft and hundreds of additional troops to combat the blazes.
French Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu ordered the armed forces to deploy an A400M military transport aircraft as early as Saturday to help combat fires in the southwest. The aircraft will be equipped with a dispensing kit that can release 20 tonnes of fire retardant, equivalent to the capacity of two Dash firefighting aircraft. Its deployment had been scheduled for the end of the month but was brought forward due to the crisis.
Around 500 additional soldiers will be sent to support firefighters battling blazes in southwest France, Lecornu said after a crisis meeting with ministers. More than 140 000 people have been evacuated from areas threatened by wildfires in the country’s southwest.
French authorities ordered the evacuation of towns near Bordeaux as a precaution, as wildfires moved towards the area. Interior Minister Laurent Nunez told the TF1 broadcaster that authorities would do everything to protect the city. The traffic information website Bison Fute urged drivers to avoid roads in the Gironde department to free up access for emergency services.
In Spain, around 63 000 people have been evacuated or ordered to remain indoors in the Madrid region as wildfires continued to spread. The government delegation in Madrid said overnight conditions had greatly aided the fight against the wildfires, which advanced little and decreased in intensity.
With temperatures dipping around Madrid, there is now an opportunity to tackle the fire with some guarantee of success, said Francisco Martin, the central government’s delegate in the Spanish capital. However, he warned that Saturday would be difficult as the wind is expected to rise in the morning, with erratic gusts.
Carlos Novillo, Madrid’s regional government emergency management chief, said the wildfire near Madrid is at its peak and impossible to control. The blaze is close to merging with another fire in neighbouring Castilla y Leon. Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez visited the emergency coordination centre on Saturday.
The massive wildfires forced NASA to evacuate one of its three global deep space communications facilities in Spain on Friday, affecting the agency’s ability to communicate with space probes.
Spanish police arrested a man for setting off a fire in Castilla y Leon region by using farm machinery in breach of a ban in the tinderbox conditions. Another person was under investigation for the same incident.
Ecologio Cabrera (86) fled his home with nothing. “If you don’t run from it and you try to face it, it devours you,” he told AFP. “I have never experienced anything like this.”
The European Union has deployed four water-bombing planes to Spain and three to France after both countries requested assistance. Sanchez said his government had deployed all available resources to fight the fires, describing the situation as dramatic.
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