France’s Megafire Stabilises as Spain’s Emergency Deepens
The huge wildfire that had threatened Bordeaux was “stabilised” but not yet contained, France’s interior minister said, after it burned an area roughly four times the size of Paris in under a week. More than 220,000 people have been evacuated across the region. In Spain, which remains under a national emergency, a man died near Valencia as fires burned on two fronts.
Some 2,500 firefighters battled the south-western French blaze, which destroyed more than 200 homes and injured over eighty of their number, coming within a few miles of the vineyards and the city itself; thousands more were evacuated as a separate fire broke out near Biscarrosse. Spain fought fires near Madrid and Valencia and appealed for European help. With a fourth heatwave forecast to push temperatures back above 40C across the continent this week, the danger is far from over. For the many Britons holidaying in France and Spain, the fires and heat remain a serious hazard. Watch the containment effort and the returning heat.