French President Emmanuel Macron will lead a crisis cabinet meeting to address wildfires burning in southern France. The fires, which started in the Gironde area of southwestern France on Wednesday, have consumed 42,000 hectares and prompted the evacuation of more than 300,000 people, marking one of the largest such operations in the country’s history.
Interior Minister Laurent Nunez stated on social media that conditions remain very difficult. He noted that the blaze in Gironde turned highly aggressive and unpredictable at the start of the night, creating its own winds and moving irregularly toward the Bordeaux area before easing somewhat by morning.
Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu called the events a historic situation, citing nearly 100,000 hectares burned nationwide since January, an unprecedented total. Finance Minister Roland Lescure described the economic impact as a sudden shock to the affected region.
The main fire has produced a pyrocumulonimbus cloud, which generates its own winds and complicates control efforts, according to firefighter Captain Nicolas Braz. Authorities have deployed 2,500 firefighters, 1,500 military personnel, and about 1,200 police officers, along with aircraft and helicopters.
Professor Stefan Doerr of Swansea University told CNBC that climate change combined with abandoned farmland has allowed flammable vegetation to expand across southern Europe. This makes fires harder to contain during extreme heat and drought, he said.
