Latest / DEEP INSIGHT / Wildfires in Bordeaux lead to largest peacetime evacuations in Frances history

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Wildfires in Bordeaux lead to largest peacetime evacuations in Frances history · DEEP INSIGHT

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Getting a new look this morning at the wildfire devastation
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: in France. The monster fire in the Bordeaux region has
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: burned up hundreds of square kilometers of land and prompted
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  Speaker 1: what is believed to be the largest ever peacetime evacuation
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  Speaker 1: in the country. Soaring temperatures today could stoke the flames.
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: Scenes this morning will be familiar to anyone who's seen
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: the wildfire aftermath in Canada. People in this French town
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  Speaker 1: now allowed to return home to assess the damage. This
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  Speaker 1: as nearby firefighters continue to tackle the flames across the region.
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  Speaker 2: Is very difficult for the firemen to fight the fire
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  Speaker 2: because the wind is very strong, extreme droughts, very high
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  Speaker 2: your temperatures.
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  Speaker 1: Another European heat wave is expected to peak today in France.
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  Speaker 1: That's likely to make already dangerous fire conditions much worse.
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  Speaker 1: Windy conditions also fanning the flames, pushing fire crews to
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  Speaker 1: their limit. Thousands of persons working long hours around the
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  Speaker 1: region fighting the flames in the ground and also the sky,
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  Speaker 1: as thousands more residents have been told to head to
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  Speaker 1: places like this evacuation centers. We'll turn now to Ross Cullen,
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  Speaker 1: who is in Bordeaux, a region synonymous with the wine industry.
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  Speaker 1: Ross this morning at a vineyard and looking at where
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  Speaker 1: crews are now focusing their efforts.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, that's right, David. We are seeing a cruise focusing
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  Speaker 3: in their efforts to the west of Bordeaux. But this
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  Speaker 3: region is synonymous, as you say, with wine. Interestingly, vines
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  Speaker 3: actually because they're very low level, no more than two
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  Speaker 3: three meters that the maximum can act as a fire
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  Speaker 3: break between forests, and so in fact we are often
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  Speaker 3: seeing vines having a secondary purpose, not just providing wine,
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  Speaker 3: but also providing a break for cruise. We've seen fires
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  Speaker 3: restarting overnight and then being controlled in the area around
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  Speaker 3: La Temple, also Lent as well in girond the overall
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  Speaker 3: Bordeaux region. They are trying to do with these little
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  Speaker 3: reignition of previously controlled fires. But overall they describe Tuesday
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  Speaker 3: night into Wednesday, the night that we've just had, as
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  Speaker 3: another steady night. All their temperatures are on the rise.
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  Speaker 1: And ross temperatures and winds, creating challenging conditions for those
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  Speaker 1: fire crews we see trying to fight back those flames.
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  Speaker 1: How are they managing through particularly this new heat?
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, as you know, in Canada, the management
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  Speaker 3: of wildfires depends so much on the weather, the direction
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  Speaker 3: of the wind, and the wind is starting to pick
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  Speaker 3: up now. The temperatures are heading towards forty two forty
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  Speaker 3: three degrees out here today expected a late afternoon, So
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  Speaker 3: it's going to be very challenging for the fire crews
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  Speaker 3: to deal with this situation. However, cooler temperatures are on
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  Speaker 3: the way later in the week, David, And so what
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  Speaker 3: the crews are focusing on twenty four to thirty six
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  Speaker 3: hours now of crucial fire fighting to try to get
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  Speaker 3: through this period. It's very dry, it's very flammable, the
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  Speaker 3: ground is rock hard. A lot of the vegetation was
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  Speaker 3: spurred on by very wet winter, lots of growth around
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  Speaker 3: March and April, and then all of a sudden, heat
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  Speaker 3: waves May, June and July have turned all of that
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  Speaker 3: vegetation to tinder. That's why it's been lighting up so quickly.
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  Speaker 3: But overall, if they feel that if they can get
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  Speaker 3: through this period Wednesday Thursday extreme heat, then they might
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  Speaker 3: have some cooler weather later on towards the end of
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  Speaker 3: the week. But they do say the Fire Service they
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  Speaker 3: are staying at full mobilization levels. This is a war
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  Speaker 3: that they're determined to win.
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  Speaker 1: Ross The sheer scale of the evacuations is just staggering.
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  Speaker 1: Hundreds of thousands of people forced out, Where do they go?
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  Speaker 3: Hundreds of thousands in France and Spain. The numbers really
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  Speaker 3: are staggering, just like the size of the fires described
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  Speaker 3: as ubble x l monstrous, unprecedented, historic. Where the people
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  Speaker 3: go is to evacuation centers like one where we were
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  Speaker 3: earlier this morning in Bordeaux, where people have temporary accommodation,
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  Speaker 3: and then as soon as their village is declared fire safe,
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  Speaker 3: they are leaving and going being able to go back
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  Speaker 3: to their homes. But it's not just residents. This is
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  Speaker 3: late July, the middle of the summer holidays, and this
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  Speaker 3: is a key vacation destination. People coming to the beaches
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  Speaker 3: of this region, the countryside of this region, French tourists
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  Speaker 3: and foreign tourists. And just on Tuesday, four thousand more
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  Speaker 3: tourists had to leave campsites that holiday destination was ordered
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  Speaker 3: to be evacuated. So we are seeing new evacuations, but
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  Speaker 3: also people coming to an end of their period when
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  Speaker 3: they were evacuated able to go home situation is challenging.
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  Speaker 3: The situation is changing, just like the weather conditions, which
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  Speaker 3: is what we are fearing today.
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  Speaker 1: Ross Colin, thank you very much.