Firefighters in Marcheprime work to battle wildfires amid drought conditions following a heat wave and water shortages across much of France on Monday. FLORION GOGA/REUTERS
French President Emmanuel Macron says the spate of wildfires ravaging the country this summer is "completely unprecedented" and that "the season is far from over", as firefighters try to bring blazes in the southwest of the country under control.
On Monday he visited the Gironde region, which includes the wine-producing areas and city of Bordeaux, to see for himself the full impact of the most devastating fires the region has seen since the 1940s, with more than 160,000 hectares already consumed by flames.
The situation had been "stabilized", he told reporters, "but it remains intense, and we must be extremely cautious over the coming hours and days … we will win this battle together".
On Tuesday, local authorities ordered nearly 4,000 people to evacuate holiday homes and campsites around Lacanau on the Atlantic coast, around 50 kilometers west of Bordeaux, amid fears that increasingly bad weather conditions could make the fire situation worse. This comes after residents of several villages closer to Bordeaux had already been forced to leave their homes, with no indication yet when they will be able to return, although Bordeaux itself is not currently regarded as being under threat.
