Firefighters race to contain fires southwest France
Firefighters race to contain fires southwest France
3:04
Two hundred thousand people have been evacuated from their homes in France’s Gironde and Landes regions as wildfires continue to burn out of control. Around 7,000 are being sheltered at a massive exhibition center in Bordeaux, which is itself shrouded in smoke carried into the city by shifting winds.
People taking shelter at the center include retirement home evacuees and many families with children.
Many of those now sleeping on cots with their children and pets were woken in their homes west of Bordeaux in the early hours of Friday by emergency text alerts on their phones, telling them to evacuate immediately.
They have no prospect of returning home anytime soon.
At a nearby folding table, Christophe explained how he was first woken by the emergency alert, before police officers climbed over his wall at 6 a.m. and banged on his door. He insisted on checking on his neighbors, both well into their nineties, but, he explained, that took time.
“I had a bag ready,” he said, “but they had nothing prepared, so we had to gather their belongings and their medication because they’re diabetic.”
Christophe is impressed by the logistics of what officials describe as the largest evacuation France has seen since World War II.
“We never knew the war,” he said, “and we’ve had disasters and fires before, but nothing like this.”
