Overview
- The largest fires began near Saumos in Gironde and near Biscarrosse in the Landes, and authorities say one blaze likely started when a brush‑cutting machine operated under a power line while the other began after a vehicle caught fire.
- Emergency services have evacuated roughly 141,000 people, including a large maritime and road evacuation from the Cap‑Ferret peninsula, and seven communes on Bordeaux’s outskirts were ordered cleared as the threat moved east.
- The government has mobilised up to about 1,000 troops, sent an A400M fitted to drop retardant, and obtained European aircraft and helicopters to supplement exhausted firefighting crews.
- Fire services report dozens of injured firefighters and stretched capacity on the ground, with commanders warning the convective fires create dangerous columns of heat that make suppression difficult.
- Climatologists link the extreme dryness to human‑caused warming, officials compare the blazes to the 2022 fires, and emergency plans including hospital 'plan blanc' activations and shipment of FFP2 masks are under way.