wildfires : Reports, news and investigations

In the southwestern Gironde region around Bordeaux, a huge fire that had flared on Tuesday was under control after rain fell overnight, a senior official said.

Thousands of French householders are having to be evacuated because of wildfires, others are being deprived of drinking water from their taps while some are even dying at work because of the heat. Yet meanwhile the ultra-rich are jetting around in private planes, benefiting from exemptions to be able to continue to play golf and racking up profits thanks to rocketing fossil fuel prices. In this opinion article Mediapart's Mickaël Correia argues that the French government is itself giving a stamp of approval to the rich elite's climate 'separatism' through its approach to environmental policy.

Seven European Nations are sending help to south-west France where forest fires are raging.

A major highway near the city of Bordeaux was closed on Wednesday afternoon due to the fire raging nearby.

Fires have so far destroyed 16 houses, burnt 6,000 hectares and forced the evacuation of almost 6,000 people in an area of France already hit last month by huge blazes.

A prosecutor in southern France said an arrested volunteer firefighter, who works fulltime as a forester, has admitted lighting several forest fires in May and July for the 'excitement' and 'adrenaline' it gave him, 'a need for social recognition' and to escape 'an oppressive family environment'.

Shift in climate is leading to more wildfires and will force France and the European Union to take "structural decisions in the years to come", French president told reporters.

The fires in Gironde in south-west France have already destroyed 13,000 hectares (32,000 acres), driven by high winds, and forced the evacuation of 16,200 holidaymakers.

Five camp sites and more than 6,200 campers were evacuated around the Dune du Pilat on the Atlantic coast.

Marseille-based photographer Arnaud Teicher has specialised in following the regrowth of forests and scrublands after their devastation by fire, and has made a series called Wildfire which demonstrates how even lanscapes seemingly reduced to earth and rock have the capacity to spring back to life with self-renewed vegetation.

Thousands of passengers were forced to sleep in their trains overnight Saturday after rail services linking Marseille and Nice were halted as a precautionary measure when weekend wildfires, which left three firefighters and an elderly woman in need of medical treatment, surrounded tracks.

Forest fires which have already destroyed 2,000 hectares on the French Mediterranean island since Friday were still burning on Sunday.

Huge forest fires in the north of the French Mediterranean island of Corsica this weekend destroyed more than 2,000 hectares (about 5,000 acres) of vegetation, as blazes continue to unfold in southern France amid exceptionally dry conditions. In late July, an estimated 7,500 hectares of countryside were devastated by wildfires, mostly in the Provence region, stretching the fire services to their limit. While President Emmanuel Macron and his prime minister, Edouard Philippe, have heaped praise on the efficiency and courage of France’s firefighters, many of the latter are angry that the country’s fire services are depleted by budget cuts, with insufficient and ageing equipment and a shortfall in their numbers. Elsa Sabado travelled to the Var département, the worst hit by the wildfires, to hear their complaints.

Boys suspected of starting one of wildfires in southern France that have destroyed homes and forced evacuation of thousands of people.

wildfires

Rainfall raises hopes for respite from French wildfires

How wealthy French elite avoid the consequences of the climate chaos they create

Fellow EU nations step in to help France combat wildfires

Firefighters battle wildfire in southwest France as 8,000 people evacuated

Wildfires rage in south-west France as new heatwave starts

French fireman 'lit wildfires for adrenaline and recognition': prosecutor

Macron tours blaze devastation as firefighters battle French wildfires

France braces for record temperatures as wildfires rage

Holidaymakers evacuated as wildfires rage in southwestern France

French photographer charts the renaissance after wildfires

Train passengers stranded as southern France wildfires halt services

Corsica wildfires still active

Angry French firefighters raise the alarm

Two French teenagers in court on suspicion of causing wildfires