The China Mail - France, Spain battle 'monster' wildfires with more heat on the way

More than 325,000 people have fled their homes as some of the worst forest fires in either country's history rage across southwest France and central Spain near Madrid.

France's major fire has caused an unprecedented "pyrocumulonimbus" -- a giant fire cloud that creates its own winds and packs lightning that causes more blazes, said the National Firefighters Federation of France (FNSPF).

"It's a David-versus-Goliath scenario... at some point, we'll find a weak spot and strike there," said FNSPF spokesman Eric Brocardi.

French President Emmanuel Macron will hold crisis cabinet meeting to discuss the emergency a Monday morning.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez will visit fire-hit areas in Valencia, in the east of the country, on Monday, where firefighters are battling a new blaze and where 15,000 people have been forced to flee their homes.

On Sunday, during a visit to the fire zone in Avila province west of Madrid, he warned: "Difficult hours lie ahead."

Spain's Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska said Sunday evening the fires were advancing, but slowly.

Earlier Sunday civil protection chief Virginia Barcones, describing the fire around Avila, said the country was battling a "monster".

"We are dealing with a perimeter of 280 kilometres encompassing 77,000 hectares," Barcones told state broadcaster TVE of the wildfire.

- 'Extremely intense' -

Scientists say climate change is making such extreme weather events more frequent and intense.

Coming at the height of the summer holiday season, the fires were fuelled by woodland parched to tinder by successive heatwaves and lack of rain since May.

In France, the prefect of the southwestern Gironde region where the country's fires are concentrated urged tourists to stay away and seek "other destinations".

Garden hose in hand, Georges Clivaz sprayed water along a road leading to his property in Saint-Jean-d'Illac as the blaze burned a few kilometres away.

"We're doing this to slow down the fire's advance; we want to save our homes," he told AFP.

Although the village was evacuated on Friday, Clivaz said he and his family were trying to hold out.

"But the firefighters are telling us that in two or three hours the fire will be here."

Interior Minister Laurent Nunez warned "the situation remains very unfavourable" across France, where more than 250,000 people have been evacuated.

The main fire in Gironde, home to Bordeaux, was "extremely intense and unpredictable... generating its own winds and advancing erratically toward the Bordeaux metropolitan area", he said on X.

- Firefighters injured -

Since Wednesday the fire in the Gironde region has injured 84 firefighters, 10 of whom have been evacuated, according to the latest situation report published Sunday by the prefecture.

Sebastien Bouvier, leader of France's CFDT union, said firefighters lacked adequate protective equipment against the fires' toxic fumes.

Weather forecasters warn another heatwave could hit France from Tuesday, with temperatures reaching 40C in some areas.

At least 240 homes have been destroyed in Gironde region, many of them in village Le Porge.

But Bordeaux mayor Thomas Cazenave said there were no plans to evacuate the city's urban area, home to 850,000 people and sheltering thousands displaced by the fires. Local officials remained "vigilant", he added.

France's defence ministry said it has taken special steps to protect industrial sites around Bordeaux, a key centre of the country's aerospace industry.

The main freeway south of Bordeaux and rail services have been cut.

Some 2,500 firefighters, 1,500 military personnel and around 1,200 police have been deployed to the Gironde region.

- 'Incalculable' damage -

King Felipe VI, visiting an emergency shelter in Villamanta on Madrid's western outskirts, said the wildfires had caused "incalculable" damage to Spain's natural heritage.

Around 75,000 residents have been evacuated from the Madrid region, Avila, Toledo and from the eastern region of Castellon in Valencia.

"We had a real scare," said Azucena Paguada, one of those evacuated to the Villamanta gym-turned-shelter.

"The Guardia Civil came to our house and made us leave, telling us we were in danger."

Another evacuee, 70-year-old Margarita, showed the stains on her T-shirt, which she has been wearing for four days.

"The queen came to say hello, and I was wearing this dirty thing," she added with a sigh.

Officials said winds were pushing wildfires near Madrid to the south, away from the capital for now, but forcing more evacuations of villages in their path.

Hundreds of kilometres away, the new Valencia fire was proving "very intense", Pilar Bernabe, the central government delegate to Valencia, wrote on X.

One person was killed on Saturday in a separate, smaller fire near Valencia, the only civilian death so far reported in the wildfires. In France, two firefighters were killed near Bordeaux on Tuesday.

Italy, too, was facing its own fires.

More than 400 tourists and beachgoers were evacuated by sea near the town of Peschici in the southern Puglia region, with 300 more expected to be rescued, said the coastguard.

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C.Fong--ThChM