France expands military to 1,500 as 197,000 evacuated from wildfires near Bordeaux

Evacuation and military surge

More than 197,000 people in France had been forced to leave their homes by Saturday amid wildfires described by authorities as of "unprecedented" scale. Together with roughly 63,000 evacuees in Spain, the total displaced reached about 260,000. The French defense ministry, after an interministerial crisis meeting, raised the number of soldiers supporting firefighting operations from 1,000 to 1,500, calling it a response to a "sudden, large and unprecedented crisis."

It is a sudden, large and unprecedented crisis.

Fire progression and threat to Bordeaux

Shifting winds pushed the blaze west of Bordeaux eastward toward the city's metropolitan area. By Saturday, the fire had consumed between 14,000 and 22,000 hectares, according to different officials: Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez cited 140 square kilometres (14,000 ha), the Gironde prefecture reported around 19,000 hectares, and Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu said 22,000 hectares were devastated. Authorities ordered the evacuation of suburbs Le Haillan, Eysines, and Merignac "out of precaution" as the flames approached. Nuñez said the government was examining all possible scenarios, including an evacuation of Bordeaux itself, but was doing everything to avoid it.

Cap-Ferret and Spanish evacuations

On the Cap-Ferret peninsula, a popular holiday destination, a full evacuation was ordered. About 44,000 residents and tourists fled either by the single road toward Bordeaux or by boats across the Arcachon basin; more than 800 reached Arcachon by sea. Around 40 of the 1,000 firefighters battling that fire were injured. In Spain, roughly 63,000 people have also been moved to safety.

Equipment and official reactions

The French military contributed bulldozers, helicopters, drones, and an A400M transport aircraft fitted with a special firefighting system. The A400M flew its first mission Saturday afternoon and can drop 20 tonnes of retardant per sortie. President Emmanuel Macron urged the armed forces to support civil protection with "maximum reinforcement." Additionally, 1.5 million FFP2 masks were delivered to the Gironde region to protect the population and first responders from smoke. Prime Minister Lecornu, who convened a crisis team for Saturday evening, declared on X that "the fires that are ravaging our country have reached an unprecedented scale."

Possible cause

The fire might have been triggered by a brush cutter used during work on a high-voltage line, according to the prosecutor's office cited by DIE WELT, though no final determination has been made.