The largest wildfire in modern French history is now nine miles from the center of Bordeaux, the mayor of the city has warned, as fire crews across southwestern France struggle to contain a blaze that has already burned 42,000 hectares and destroyed 240 homes.
Bordeaux Mayor Thomas Cazenave said Monday that the city was preparing to accommodate a large number of people if further evacuations were ordered.
Across France, 220,000 people have been evacuated since the fires began. In the town of Cestas, 17,000 residents were forced to flee overnight as the fire swelled. Mayor Jerome Steffe described it as the fire of the century. His counterpart in a neighboring town described the situation as catastrophic.
President Emmanuel Macron described the fires as completely unprecedented and the toughest since World War Two. Interior Minister Laurent Nunez said the fire had a life of its own.
Firefighters made progress containing a smaller blaze in the Landes region, but the main Gironde fire remains uncontrolled. Conditions are expected to worsen Tuesday as a heatwave and strong winds return.
The crisis extends beyond France. In Spain, more than 100,000 people have been evacuated from areas west of Madrid, where fires have burned over 27,000 hectares. Satellite imagery from BBC Verify confirms that multiple blazes merged into a single fast-moving front.
The European context is stark. Europe is the fastest-warming continent on Earth, heating at twice the global average, according to the Copernicus Climate Change Service. Summer heatwaves are longer, more intense, and more frequent. The water stress that precedes megafires has become a seasonal norm in southern Europe.
French Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu noted that nine out of ten fires are human-caused, most by carelessness: a cigarette butt, a barbecue, work without precautions. Police have arrested 162 people for deliberate arson since July 6.
But the underlying conditions (record temperatures, drought, dry vegetation) are the product of a changing climate that no amount of policing can fix. The 116,085 hectares burned in France since January is more than some small European countries have in total forest cover.
The human cost is still unfolding. Emergency shelters are filling. The agricultural losses (vineyards, livestock, timber) will take years to quantify. And with the fire season only half over, there is no guarantee that the worst has passed.