Two large fires burned 14,000 hectares of vegetation in this area south of Bordeaux a week ago, in the midst of a heat wave in Western Europe.
President Emmanuel Macron acknowledged that the season is “exceptional for its harshness”, since so far this year three times the amount of land burned in 2020 has burned.
As in the Iberian Peninsula, France’s is the second summer heat wave: although it started a little later, it has brought the mercury to 38 degrees and Paris is expected to reach 41 this week.
In Spain, about 20 forest fires were still active and out of control in different parts of the country, from the south to the north. In Galicia, in the country’s northwest, fires swept through some 4,500 hectares during the week, according to authorities.
And in the province of Malaga, in Andalusia, in southern Spain, firefighters managed to stabilize a fire in the Sierra de Mijas, which destroyed some 2,000 hectares, local authorities said.
The flames forced the evacuation of just over 3,000 people, but 2,000 were able to return to their homes.
“We have not stopped working all night,” said the Andalusian Minister of Agriculture, Carmen Crespo, on public television, referring to the work of the firefighters.
In Greece, another country where fires have been declared in recent days, the authorities decided to preventively evacuate seven villages in an area of the Rethymno prefecture in Crete. However, the fire declared on Friday on that island is under control, indicated Civil Protection.