LE TAILLAN-MÉDOC, France — A scorching haze settled around the city of Bordeaux on Friday as hundreds of firefighters from across Europe joined their French counterparts to tackle a raging forest fire that has engulfed the country’s southwest, displacing more of 10,000 people, local officials said. The fire in the Gironde region, which flared up on Tuesday, was one of the most violent of the season. It has burned more than 19,000 acres of forest and destroyed 16 homes, spreading devastation, fear and uncertainty in the quiet towns that dot the French countryside. More than 70,000 acres have burned since July. Firefighters contained the blaze overnight, local officials said, but temperatures remained high and the air and ground extremely dry, making it possible for it to spread if winds pick up again. Mélanie Morales Tutou, 39, an executive assistant from the town of Saint-Magne, was on vacation several hours from home with her husband and 14-year-old triplets when she learned of the evacuation. order on Tuesday. She ran home to tend to her cats and pet pig, past rows of bare, blackened bark where pine forests once stood. She grabbed the necessary paperwork, but the 130-pound pig refused to budge, so she left a large supply of pumpkins and apples with her, hoping for the best. “The village was a cloud of black smoke,” Tutu said. “The firemen told us to leave and not come back.” The area is not yet clean, said Ghislaine Charles, mayor of Saint-Magne. “He really is a fire-breathing dragon,” he said. “It’s consuming the forest.” The firemen sleep in her office at the town hall and outside in the garden. The fire can enter the ground and survive underground after being extinguished above, only to explode on the surface, said Jean-Luc Gleyze, president of the Gironde region. An investigation is underway to determine whether this fire was naturally caused or caused by criminal arson, he said. Nearly 400 firefighters from Germany, Poland, Greece, Italy, Austria and Romania are in France to help, along with donated water-bombing planes, officials said. The fire comes amid a particularly hot summer in France and across Europe, as well as a record-breaking drought. In the past two months, temperatures have soared to 104 Fahrenheit in the southwest, where the Bordeaux wine region is located. In recent days, thick clouds of smoke have fallen over the region’s beaches and highways, and local authorities have closed the A63 highway linking Bordeaux to northern Spain. The region has seen other unusual weather this summer. In June, hail the size of golf balls fell on small towns north of Bordeaux, damaging hundreds of roofs and vehicles. The fires started in July, France’s driest month since 1961, France24 reported. Extreme drought grips Europe, intensifying heat and fueling wildfires Scorching heat and strong winds have since created a tinderbox effect, experts say, hampering efforts to put out the flames. Extreme drought across much of Europe has also blighted the landscape, helping to ignite some 264 fires across France this year alone, according to data compiled by the European Forest Fire Information System. Almost half of Europe is under “warning conditions”, indicating severe drought and a large soil moisture deficit, according to the European Drought Monitor. The overall pattern of more intense, more frequent and longer heat waves, exacerbating droughts and wildfires, is a result of climate change caused by human activity, according to experts, the Washington Post reported. Southern France has been hit hard. Europeans shocked by ‘heat revelation’ as temperature records fall “The area is completely deformed. We are devastated, we are exhausted,” the mayor of the French city of Hostens, Jean-Louis Dartiailh, told Radio Classique, according to Reuters. “[This fire] it’s the last straw.” Despite exhaustion, firefighters continue to fight. “We have to push it back,” said Guy Rougé, a volunteer firefighter in Saint-Magne. “We have to protect people. We have to protect the houses. And when those things are done, we can take the time we need to put out the fire.” Chui reported from Washington.
