French President Emmanuel Macron called an inter-ministerial crisis meeting on Monday morning as fires continued to burn in parts of the country, the Elysee Palace said.
Both France and Spain are battling massive wildfires that have destroyed hundreds of homes, forced mass evacuations and generated extreme weather conditions.
What do we know about the fires in France?
In the south-western Gironde region, which was particularly hard hit, fires have destroyed 240 homes since Wednesday. Deputy mayor Jean Lazarowicz told news agency AFP that about 170 properties were damaged in the Le Porges municipality alone.
84 firefighters have been injured in the fire. About 2,500 firefighters, 1,500 army personnel and 1,200 police officers and gendarmes have been deployed.
The CFDT firefighters union said that personnel were being sent into dangerous conditions without adequate protection from carcinogenic smoke and particles. It called for new filtering hoods to be issued more widely and said at least four firefighters required treatment in hyperbaric chambers after suffering carbon monoxide poisoning.
The fire also produced a pyrocumulonimbus, a massive fire-generated cloud that can fan further flames, generating its own winds, lightning and, in some cases, tornadoes.
France’s national firefighting federation said the incident had never been recorded before in the country.
French Finance Minister Roland Lescure said on Monday that wildfires around Bordeaux in southwestern France had dealt a sudden blow to an already struggling region.
‘Monster’ fire wreaks havoc on Spain
In neighboring Spain, national civil protection chief Virginia Barcones described the fires around the city of Avila as “monstrous”.
“We are dealing with a 280-kilometre perimeter covering 77,000 hectares,” Barkons told state broadcaster TVE on Sunday.
About 75,000 people have been evacuated from the Madrid region, Avila, Toledo and Castellón in the eastern Valencia region.
Authorities said Monday the fire was “not yet under control,” though they planned to reopen a campsite where 4,500 people were evacuated and allow some elderly residents to return home to another area when conditions permit.
For some time winds near Madrid were pushing the fires southwards and away from the capital, but forcing the evacuation of villages in their path.
One person died on Saturday in a fire near Valencia, the only civilian death reported so far. Two firefighters died near Bordeaux in France last Tuesday.
Edited by: Dmytro Lyubenko
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