Hundreds of firemen have been deployed in the Gironde region south of the city of Bordeaux to fight a blaze which has already destroyed 1,300 hectares of forest and forced the evacuation of several hundred people.
The disaster was still unfolding on Tuesday morning in the town of Saumos, a village located between the beaches of the Atlantic Ocean, near the seaside resort of Lacanau, in the Médoc area.
Around 540 people have been evacuated since Monday evening, according to local police.
Four houses burned down but no deaths have been reported.
An investigation has been opened to determine the cause of the fire.
The blaze is not yet under control due to a "a turning wind and a fire surface difficult to control," sub-prefect of Lesparre-Médoc, Fabrice Thibier told the press.
Although it rained in the area for half an hour after midnight, according to AFP journalists at the scene, the rainfall was not enough to quell the fire.
Intense night
The firefighters' communication manager present on site, Thomas Couturier, spoke of "a fairly intense night".
Two Canadairs, one Dash and three water bomber helicopters were deployed on Tuesday morning, with reinforcements from neighbouring departments on the way, he said.
"We are once again facing weather that will be a little capricious with temperatures high enough for the season, not necessarily rain announced and gusts of wind that could arrive during the afternoon," he told France Info on Tuesday.
🔥🌲#FeuDeForêt à Saumos (33) : 75 sapeurs-sauveteurs de l’@uiisc1 sont arrivés cette nuit en appui des plus de 700 sapeurs-pompiers mobilisés.
— Sécurité Civile (@SecCivileFrance) September 13, 2022
4 #Canadair, 2 #Dash, 1 #Beech & 1 hélicoptère bombardier d’eau sont également engagés en renfort.
⚠️Suivez les consignes des autorités pic.twitter.com/zedwoBO7BQ
Record temperatures
The smell of smoke could be detected as far away as Charente-Maritime, a neighboring department to the north, where firefighters received numerous calls from concerned locals.
Elsewhere, in the Landes, another smaller fire destroyed 45 hectares of forest late Monday afternoon in Herm, northwest of Dax. No homes were evacuated.
An emergency vehicle was destroyed in the operations and a firefighter was injured, according to the prefecture of the department.
Firefighters in the region were concerned because of a new heat wave, due to the arrival of hot air from Morocco, according to Météo-France.
Major fires burned 30,000 hectares in July and August in La Teste-de-Buch and Landiras in Gironde where temperatures hit record highs.
Monthly temperature records, sometimes half a century old, have been broken in several municipalities in the past two months.
The thermometer exceeded 40 degrees in places in the Landes, and it was 37.5°C in Bordeaux, unheard of since 1987.
In the Pyrénées-Atlantiques, with a temperature of 38.9°C, the city of Pau had not been this hot in September since 1970.
