Authorities in Bordeaux are studying emergency scenarios, including a possible full evacuation of the city, as massive wildfires continue to advance across the Gironde region in southwestern France.
Since the fires began, more than 220,000 people have already been evacuated from towns and suburbs around Bordeaux, in what officials describe as France’s largest peacetime civilian evacuation. Some western suburbs of Bordeaux, including areas near the airport, have been cleared as flames move closer to the metropolitan area.
Interior Minister Laurent Nunez and Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu have warned that conditions remain “very unfavorable”, with the blaze generating its own winds and spreading unpredictably. Firefighters, soldiers, and water‑bombing aircraft are battling a fire that has already burned tens of thousands of hectares of forest and scrubland—an area several times the size of Paris.