French authorities issued a preventive evacuation order this Saturday for seven key municipalities located in the Gironde region, near the Bordeaux area, following the wave of forest fires that have affected the southwest of that country and central Spain.
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According to the prefect of Gironde, Sophie Brocas, the measure affected the municipalities of Le Haillan, Eysines and Mérignac, the largest suburb of the city of Bordeaux, Saint-Médard-en-Jalles, Saint-Jean-d’Illac, Martignas-sur-Jalle and Saint-Aubin-de-Médoc.
The concern has focused on deploying protection operations around industrial facilities such as the one located in the town of Saint-Médard-en-Jalles, an industrial plant classified as high-risk Seveso that produces, among other components, oxidizer for the European Ariane rocket and propellants for missiles and rockets.
French Prime Minister, Sébastien Lecornu, detailed that the fire in Gironde presents a “convective fire” behavior, meaning it is capable of generating its own winds, accelerating its progress, and abruptly changing direction.
The phenomenon has been described as “unprecedented” by emergency services.
Thus, the French government executed the military deployment of more than 1500 personnel in Gironde and Les Landes, the immediate entry into action of the Airbus A400M adaptable for firefighting, and the activation of the “white plan” in hospitals to reinforce their response capacity to the emergency.
In addition, the government distributed more than 1.5 million FFP2 masks to residents due to the dense smoke columns near the areas.
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The Minister of the Interior, Laurent Nuñez, pointed out that more than 98 thousand hectares have been burned so far this year, which he described as a “historic record.” In that sense, he indicated that the evacuation operations, which exceed 167,000 displaced people in Gironde and 30,000 in Les Landes, probably represent the largest response of this type in French history.
Regarding the situation in the neighboring country, the community of Madrid and the neighboring region of Castilla y León face a critical scenario.
The president of Madrid, Isabel Díaz, defined the emergency in the southwest of the region as “the worst fire in the history” of the area, where more than 40,000 people have been evacuated or confined.
The main concern of the firefighting teams is the confluence of two massive active fronts. One in Madrid, which has already devastated 6,000 hectares, and another in Castilla y León, with 9,000 hectares destroyed.
In that sense, Spanish local authorities warned that the fire in southwestern Madrid is “beyond extinction capacity” due to unfavorable weather conditions and very strong winds.
In parallel, the Civil Guard is keeping two people under investigation, one of them detained, for their alleged involvement in the Castilla y León fire.
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