Wildfires advanced towards the outskirts of the historic French city of Bordeaux, at the heart of the country’s winelands, on Sunday as France and Spain battled blazes that have already forced the evacuation of hundreds of thousands of people.
About 220,000 people have been evacuated in France, while in Spain more than 75,000 people have been evacuated and a further 30,000 ordered to shelter in place, authorities said.
In France, fires have ravaged the Cap Ferret peninsula on the Atlantic coast, a popular tourist destination, and spread through areas surrounding Bordeaux, where firefighters were trying to prevent the flames from reaching the regional capital.
“The fire is about 15 kilometres away from the entry points to the main city,” Bordeaux Mayor Thomas Cazenave said on Sunday, while Interior Minister Laurent Nunez said on X that the situation remained “difficult”.
As the blaze advanced, police officers went door-to-door overnight in the municipalities of Marcheprime and Cestas, evacuating residents one home at a time, with footage released by French authorities showing officers knocking on doors in the dark to urge people to leave.
