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A wildfire burning out of control in southwestern France has forced the evacuation of 10,000 people from two dozen small towns and villages near the Spanish border, and officials said strong winds on Monday will further intensify the fire.
The fire has burned around 4,600 hectares in the foothills of the French Pyrenees, local prefect Pierre Regnault de la Mothe said in a post on X.
“This morning conditions are deteriorating again,” Interior Minister Laurent Nunez warned on French television channel TF1. “Today the battle resumes.”
Early summer heat waves in France and across Western Europe scorched huge areas of land in May and June, making them particularly vulnerable to wildfires this year.
The Trevillac fire burns near the third stage of the Tour de France. Local authorities have closed this stage to the public to ensure unhindered emergency services access to the area. Although the race will continue, the following team car convoy will now be kept to a minimum.
WATCH | In France, the number of deaths increases due to extreme heat:
France reports 1,000 additional heat-related deaths
France’s public health agency said there were about 1,000 additional deaths in the country amid the record heat, an estimate it said was likely to rise. The agency said 85 percent of the deaths involved people 65 and older.
On the Spanish side of the border, the fire has destroyed 2,200 hectares – 97 percent of it in the protected natural area of Les Gavarres – but Catalan authorities said late Saturday that the fire was stable and would be fully extinguished within a week.
Police have arrested an employee of a company contracted with the regional government of Catalonia who is suspected of starting a forest fire by using an angle grinder on the side of a road.
South of Catalonia, in the eastern province of Castellon, 500 people were evacuated after a wildfire entered the Sierra de Espadão national park, home to a significant cork oak forest.