Bordeaux wildfire forces 140,000 evacuations as flames spread toward city suburbs

What happened

A wildfire ignited around midday Wednesday in the village of Saumos, a popular holiday area on France's Atlantic coast. By Friday night the blaze had consumed 22,000 hectares of land. The fire spread rapidly through pine forests and scrubland, fuelled by temperatures reaching 39 degrees Celsius and shifting winds that changed its direction overnight Thursday into Friday.

The wind has turned, and the fire has changed its expansion direction.

The flames, which initially moved west toward the Arcachon basin, turned eastward toward the Bordeaux metropolitan area. While the city itself was described as not immediately threatened, seven additional communes near Bordeaux and its suburbs, together home to around 70,000 people, were ordered to prepare for precautionary evacuation late Friday.

The evacuation effort

Authorities have now evacuated approximately 140,000 people from the Atlantic coast, according to figures released late Friday by Gironde prefect Sophie Brocas. Earlier in the day, Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez had put the figure at around 110,000, while other official counts during Friday ranged between 67,000 and 44,000 as the crisis intensified through the day.

Evacuees included tourists from Switzerland, Germany, and elsewhere who had been staying at coastal campsites and holiday centres. Many were forced to leave behind caravans and tents. The Gendarmerie coordinated the operation and guarded the deserted sites. Boats were deployed from Cap Ferret to ferry evacuees to Arcachon, from where extra trains were added to carry people onward to Bordeaux. Local oyster farmers also offered their vessels to assist. In Bordeaux itself, a convention hall was opened with capacity to shelter up to 10,000 evacuees.

Damage and firefighting deployment

Eighty buildings have been damaged by the flames, of which at least 50 were destroyed, along with one campsite. No deaths have been reported among the civilian population. One firefighter was injured, though reports vary on whether the injury was isolated or part of a larger tally of 42 predominantly light injuries among fire crews.

Firefighting resources scaled up rapidly through Friday. Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu announced after a crisis meeting that the number of soldiers deployed to support firefighters would double from 500 to 1,000. In total, 1,500 firefighters are now engaged, backed by a large fleet of water-bomber aircraft. Local farmers provided 40 tanker trucks at the fire service's request.

Two firefighting planes from Croatia are arriving, along with helicopters from the Czech Republic and Slovakia.

President Macron stated that assistance was arriving via the European Union's civil protection mechanism. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz also offered France support, expressing solidarity in a French-language message on Platform X.

A second fire at Biscarrosse

A separate wildfire south of Bordeaux near the town of Biscarrosse forced the evacuation of a further 23,000 people. That fire likely started when a delivery van suffered a technical defect on a forest-lined country road and ignited, with flames leaping quickly into surrounding vegetation. One hundred houses were damaged and 700 firefighters were deployed. Dramatic scenes unfolded at a Biscarrosse equestrian centre, where horses were released from stables to gallop down the road and escape the advancing fire, as recorded in video footage published by Le Figaro.

What comes next

Bison Futé, the official French traffic information service, urged drivers overnight Friday to avoid travelling into or through the Gironde department. Bordeaux-Mérignac airport remained closed on Friday due to thick smoke. Authorities warned that the situation stays unfavourable as the fire remains highly active across the entire affected zone. There is no timeline for when evacuees may return to their holiday quarters.