France maintains three large active forest fires, two in the New Aquitaine region (in Arcachon Bay and Les Landes) and a third in the Mediterranean department of Var (between Marseille and Nice), while authorities have requested the activation of the European Union Civil Protection Mechanism to reinforce the firefighting efforts with aerial means.
President Emmanuel Macron announced on Thursday night that France will receive two Canadair amphibious aircraft from Croatia, two Air Tractor aircraft from Portugal, and two Black Hawk heavy helicopters provided by the Czech Republic and Slovakia.
“The situation remains under enormous tension due to the fires ravaging the country, particularly in Gironde,” Macron declared on his social media, highlighting that “this concrete, rapid, and operational solidarity” from European partners “is a precious strength” in a difficult time.
In the Gironde department, some 800 firefighters are battling a fire, probably of accidental origin, which has already burned about 8,700 hectares north of Arcachon Bay.
The prefecture reported this morning, in a statement, that it has ordered “the gradual evacuation of the entire Arcachon Bay peninsula, village by village, from Claouey to the tip of Cap-Ferret,” an operation being carried out via the only existing road on the peninsula and also by sea in what is one of the main tourist areas on the Atlantic coast.
From the start of the fire on Wednesday until early this morning, nearly 20,000 people had been preventively evacuated and several homes had been destroyed. A firefighter suffered injuries after an explosion, presumably caused by a gas cylinder.
Read more How many hectares have burned? The map of the most serious active fires
A second fire, declared on Thursday near Biscarrosse, in the Les Landes department, after a vehicle caught fire, has burned about 2,500 hectares and remains out of control, according to authorities. The advance of the flames forced the evacuation of some 23,000 people and mobilized about 600 firefighters.
In the southeast of the country, the fire affecting the Var department for three days saw multiple flare-ups on Thursday, although improved weather conditions allowed some of the evacuees to return, while some 800 firefighters remain deployed to contain the fire.
In Corsica, the fire that has been active for about 12 days in the Restonica valley has ravaged 600 hectares, according to the latest update from the Haute-Corse prefecture, where more than 210 firefighters, supported by seven helicopters and two planes, fought the flames throughout Thursday, under particularly difficult conditions due to the steep terrain and dense smoke.
French authorities have warned that the extreme dryness of vegetation and high temperatures are hindering firefighting efforts. According to the government, more than 12,500 forest fires have been recorded since the beginning of the year, and the burned area already exceeds that recorded in the whole of 2022, a year marked by serious fires in the southwest of the country.
“I call on our compatriots to be extremely vigilant. Every action counts to protect our lives, our homes, our forests, our landscapes,” the French president urged in his social media message.
