Reuters, ILLE-SUR-TET, France
A wildfire burning out of control in southwestern France has forced the evacuation of 10,000 people from two dozen small towns and villages near the Spanish border and officials said strong winds on Monday would fan the flames.The fire has torched at least 4,600 hectares in the foothills of the French Pyrenees, local prefect Pierre Regnault de la Mothe said in a social media post.“This morning conditions are deteriorating again,” Interior Minister Laurent Nunez said on TV news. “Today the battle resumes.”
A French Canadair CL-415 drops water on a wildfire in southern France on Sunday.
Early summer heatwaves in France and across western Europe in May and last month dried out vast areas of land, making them highly vulnerable to wildfires this year.The Trevillach blaze is burning near the third stage of the Tour de France. Local authorities have closed the leg to the public to allow emergency services easy access to the area.
Although the race would proceed, the motorcade of team vehicles that follow would be held to a minimum.On the Spanish side of the border, the fire incinerated 2,200 hectares — 97 percent of them in the protected natural area of Les Gavarres — but Catalan authorities said on Saturday that it was stable and would be completely extinguished during the week.Police have arrested an employee of a company contracted by Catalonia’s regional government who is suspected of having sparked the wildfire by using an angle grinder on the side of a road.South of Catalonia, in the eastern Castellon province, 500 people were evacuated after a wildfire entered the Sierra de Espadan national park, home to a significant cork oak forest.
