BORDEAUX: Forests burned and villages emptied as more than 325,000 people fled blazes tearing through France and Spain on Sunday, with firefighters struggling to contain flames stretching kilometers.
Forests burned and villages emptied as more than 325,000 people fled blazes tearing through France and Spain on Sunday, with giant smoke plumes the sky and firefighters struggling to contain the flames.
The forest infernos, raging for days in France’s southwest and central Spain near Madrid, rank among the worst either nation has seen in peacetime.
France’s major fire has caused an unprecedented “pyrocumulonimbus” — a gigantic fire cloud that creates its own winds and packs lightning that causes more blazes, said the National Firefighters Federation of France (FNSPF).
“It’s a David-versus-Goliath scenario... at some point, we’ll find a weak spot and strike there,” said FNSPF spokesman Eric Brocardi.
