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VIDEO: 22,000 evacuated as French firefighters struggle to contain massive wildfires

Another 8,000 people have been evacuated from their homes in south west France, as changing winds raises the risk of wildfires spreading to residential areas.

Published: 18 July 2022 10:12 CEST
Updated: 18 July 2022 14:27 CEST
VIDEO: 22,000 evacuated as French firefighters struggle to contain massive wildfires
Members of the public observe a fire from La Teste-de-Buch, southwestern France, on July 16, 2022. - The intense mobilization of firefighters did not weaken on July 16, 2022 to fix the fires in the south of France, and particularly in Gironde where new evacuations are in progress in front of the advance of the flames which ravaged more than 10.000 hectares of forests, in a context of generalized heat wave all weekend. (Photo by GAIZKA IROZ / AFP)

Firefighters have been unable to control the blaze near the Dune de Pilat, Europe’s highest sand dune and a summer tourism hotspot, where rapidly changing winds have increased the risk of it spreading to residential areas, they said.

“The smoke is toxic,” firefighter spokesman Arnaud Mendousse told AFP. “Protecting the population is a matter of public health.”

Some 8,000 people were evacuated from Les Miquelots, a southern neighbourhood of the town of Teste-de-Buch, with another 3,000 told to leave Pyla-sur-mer, to the east.

Monday’s evacuation effort comes after 14,000 people – including tourists at campsites in the area – have been evacuated since the fire broke out on Tuesday. 

Firefighters in the coastal town of Arcachon in France’s southwestern Gironde département were fighting to control two forest blazes that have devoured more than 10,000 hectares since Tuesday.

“It’s a Herculean job,” said Lieutenant-Colonel Olivier Chavatte from the fire and rescue service, which has 1,200 firefighters and five planes in action.

Further evacuation orders were given on Saturday for a few hundred residents, firefighter spokesman Arnaud Mendousse told AFP, including tourists at several campsites.

Since Tuesday, more than 22,000 people in total – residents and tourists combined – have been forced to decamp with seven emergency shelters set up in order to receive evacuees.

Tourists evacuate the Capfun campsite near La Teste-de-Buch, southwestern France. Photo by GAIZKA IROZ / AFP

Météo France forecast temperatures of 40C and above for large parts of France at the start of this week, with 15 départements on red alert for extreme heat on Monday.

READ ALSO What temperatures can we expect in France this week?

Authorities in the French Alps urged climbers bound for Mont Blanc, Europe’s highest mountain, to postpone their trip due to repeated rock falls caused by “exceptional climatic conditions” and “drought”.

The call comes after a section of Italy’s biggest Alpine glacier gave way at the start of the month, killing 11 people, in a disaster officials blamed on climate change.

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CLIMATE CRISIS

‘Extreme’ climate blamed for world’s worst wine harvest in 62 years

World wine production dropped 10 percent last year, the biggest fall in more than six decades, because of "extreme" climate changes, the body that monitors the trade said on Thursday.

Published: 26 April 2024 08:48 CEST
'Extreme' climate blamed for world's worst wine harvest in 62 years

“Extreme environmental conditions” including droughts, fires and other problems with climate were mostly to blame for the drastic fall, said the International Organisation of Vine and Wine (OIV) that covers nearly 50 wine producing countries.

Australia and Italy suffered the worst, with 26 and 23 percent drops. Spain lost more than a fifth of its production. Harvests in Chile and South Africa were down by more than 10 percent.

The OIV said the global grape harvest was the worst since 1961, and worse even than its early estimates in November.

In further bad news for winemakers, customers drank three per cent less wine in 2023, the French-based intergovernmental body said.

Director John Barker highlighted “drought, extreme heat and fires, as well as heavy rain causing flooding and fungal diseases across major northern and southern hemisphere wine producing regions.”

Although he said climate problems were not solely to blame for the drastic fall, “the most important challenge that the sector faces is climate change.

“We know that the grapevine, as a long-lived plant cultivated in often vulnerable areas, is strongly affected by climate change,” he added.

France bucked the falling harvest trend, with a four percent rise, making it by far the world’s biggest wine producer.

Wine consumption last year was however at its lowest level since 1996, confirming a fall-off over the last five years, according to the figures.

The trend is partly due to price rises caused by inflation and a sharp fall in wine drinking in China – down a quarter – due to its economic slowdown.

The Portuguese, French and Italians remain the world’s biggest wine drinkers per capita.

Barker said the underlying decrease in consumption is being “driven by demographic and lifestyle changes. But given the very complicated influences on global demand at the moment,” it is difficult to know whether the fall will continue.

“What is clear is that inflation is the dominant factor affecting demand in 2023,” he said.

Land given over to growing grapes to eat or for wine fell for the third consecutive year to 7.2 million hectares (17.7 million acres).

But India became one of the global top 10 grape producers for the first time with a three percent rise in the size of its vineyards.

France, however, has been pruning its vineyards back slightly, with its government paying winemakers to pull up vines or to distil their grapes.

The collapse of the Italian harvest to its lowest level since 1950 does not necessarily mean there will be a similar contraction there, said Barker.

Between floods and hailstones, and damp weather causing mildew in the centre and south of the country, the fall was “clearly linked to meteorological conditions”, he said.

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