Gironde wildfires pick up as French region braces for new 40C heatwave

On Tuesday morning the Gironde prefect ordered a new evacuation of all camping sites near the coast at Lacanau, while those in the nearby town were allowed to stay put but told to prepare for sudden evacuation.

About 4,000 tourists told to leave the area are in addition to the 220,000 people evacuated around France in recent days.

An estimated 240 homes and houses have been destroyed, officials have said.

By midday on Tuesday firefighters were already intervening in various parts of the region to tackle fires that were picking up again.

A 23-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of starting a fire in the Var region. He faces 15 years’ imprisonment.

Peggy Plouhinec, the general director of Château Picque Caillou – one of the few wine estates on the west side of Bordeaux – told the BBC that her business chose to close at the weekend because of the smoke, but that the situation had improved since then and that a bout of rain on Sunday night had helped.

While her vineyards were not at risk, she said tourists had “deserted” the region. “The hospitality sector will be impacted this summer, that’s for sure,” she added. “What is happening is unprecedented. We’re lucky that we haven’t been too affected yet, but the business will still suffer from the lower numbers of tourists.”

“But many people have lost their homes or their businesses, not to mention the firefighters who have been hard at work for weeks now and who must be exhausted.”

One resident of Cap Ferret, which was evacuated late last week, told French media that his main concern now was for the peninsula he lived in, rather than the big city city inland.

“Everyone talks about saving Bordeaux, but in Bordeaux there’s nothing but concrete. Have you ever seen concrete burn?”

“Here, there are only trees… and when you see all that has burned, it’s a catastrophe.”

Additional reporting by Xavier Pallas