The giant fire that has devastated southwestern France took on “unprecedented proportions” on Friday and headed toward Bordeaux, where Quebec City leaders were watching with concern as mass evacuations and the fire spread.
Boaters relax on Moutchik beach, located about fifty kilometers from Bordeaux, in southwestern France, on July 24, 2026, in a doomsday atmosphere with a giant forest fire opposite.
Photo by AFP
“The village next to mine was evacuated about fifteen minutes ago, so I prepared my suitcase,” testified Marc-Antoine Beaulieu, a Quebecer living in Pessac, about 10 kilometers from Bordeaux. The smoke appeared around 6 p.m. and grew up. It was very tight and very intense. The sky was red, as if it was on fire. »
Marc-Antoine Beaulieu, 41, has lived in Pessac, near Bordeaux, for about 10 years.
Photo courtesy of Marc-Antoine Beaulieu.
The fire, which has been raging in France’s Gironde department since Wednesday, took on a whole new intensity on Friday evening as it headed towards the metropolis of Bordeaux, one of the country’s largest cities. The flame was located at a distance of about fifty kilometers.
Authorities will “do everything to protect” the city, Interior Minister Laurent Nunez assured, adding that “we have never seen such a self-fueling fire of this magnitude.”
In the Gironde, flames have already consumed more than 19,000 hectares, equivalent to the Isle of Orleans off Quebec.
Tens of thousands of tourists and residents of the Gironde in southwestern France were evacuated as a fire raged. Mutchik Beach in Lacanau was nearly empty Friday.
AFP
The fires have forced the evacuation of at least 140,000 people in the highly tourist region since Wednesday, as well as 31,000 people in the neighboring Landes department, where another major fire is ongoing.
Quebecers on alert
“They have lost control of the fires (…) If a fire happens to us, Bordeaux will no longer exist,” says the 41-year-old, who has lived in France for 10 years.
About twenty kilometers to the south, in Arbanac, Mathieu Gontier was also closely following developments.
“The problem is that our house is surrounded by forest, so we are always afraid that it will disappear,” says the Quebec resident, also 41. There is a forest near my house. My house could be damaged. We’re trying to come up with plans for what to do if that ever happens. »
Although he was several miles from the fire, he could see the thick blanket of smoke and smell the smoke.
“The atmosphere is one of vigilance. Every day several fires start in other areas, they go from left to right,” continues the father.
Also in Spain
There were 32 fires in France on Friday evening, and 50,000 hectares have burned since the beginning of the year.
A firefighter pours water on the edge of a forest during a fire near the town of Lege-Cap-Ferret, southwest France, July 24, 2026.
AFP
Meanwhile, according to the region’s president, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, Spain must also cope with the “worst fire in history” in the Madrid region.
“For such a region, with a high concentration of housing and population, this is a disaster,” he emphasizes.
By Friday evening the fire could not be extinguished and more than 40,000 people were evacuated or isolated in the Madrid area.
The European Union has deployed four water bombers to Spain and three to France.
In both countries, these fires are a consequence of forests and vegetation becoming more flammable due to the drought and heat wave experienced since June in Western Europe.
– With AFP