More than 200,000 people fled or were ordered to confine themselves to their homes this Friday, due to the enormous forest fires ravaging Spain and France, which led Madrid to declare a state of emergency and the French president to mobilize the Army.
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As reported by The Guardian, the Spanish government declared its first national state of emergency due to the disaster, after two large fires merged into one on the outskirts of Madrid and a third was about to join them.
“This is the worst forest fire in the history of our region”, declared the president of the Community of Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, describing “an unprecedented situation: a combination of extremely high temperatures and relentless winds.”
On Friday night, the Minister of Environment of the Community of Madrid, Carlos Novillo, reported that the fire had reached a critical point and was out of control. “The priority now is to protect the population, help the evacuees, and seize every opportunity”, he added.
The President of the Spanish Government, Pedro Sánchez, chaired an emergency meeting this morning at the Palacio de la Moncloa, while the state meteorological office warned that the danger of new fires remained very high.
In a social media post this afternoon, Sánchez sent his support “to the thousands of people facing a very difficult night today, with evacuations and confinements to protect their lives.”
“All administrations are working in a coordinated manner to combat the fire and guarantee the safety of the population”, he noted.
For his part, French President Emmanuel Macron, on Friday asked the Armed Forces “to mobilize to provide maximum support to civil security” after a night described as “almost apocalyptic”, after more than 14,000 hectares were burned in the Gironde department, as reported by Europa Press.
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According to the French Ministry of Interior, at least 141,000 people have been evacuated since Wednesday night due to the fires ravaging southwestern France: 110,000 in the Gironde region and some 31,000 in the Landes department due to the flames, which have spread to Biscarrosse, another active hotspot.
Added to this are the evacuations ordered tonight by the authorities of the French southwest of the Cap Ferret peninsula, on the Atlantic coast – one of the country’s best-known tourist destinations – “town by town” in the face of an “intense and highly unpredictable” forest fire that has already devastated more than 19,000 hectares of forest.
The fire in Lège-Cap Ferret, which is ravaging the north of the Arcachon basin, is advancing relentlessly eastward, towards Bordeaux, due to strong gusts of wind.
The prefect of Nouvelle-Aquitaine and Gironde, Sophie Brocas, announced new evacuations at a press conference, including the towns of Saint-Hélène, Salaunes, and surrounding areas.
However, the mayor of Bordeaux, Thomas Cazenave, explained in statements to the BFM TV channel that “there is a persistent smell of smoke”, although the fire for the moment “is not at the gates” of the city.
Given the emergency, both countries requested aid from the European Union. All amidst scorching heat and extreme dry conditions in much of Southern Europe.
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