A massive wildfire that has burned some 42,000 hectares in southwest France over the past week “remains under control” after a second quiet night, regional authorities said Wednesday. But the regional prefecture warned that hot and dry weather conditions remained “unfavourable”. Follow our liveblog for all the latest updates.
Wildfire response must evolve to keep pace with climate change, EU says
The European Union’s response to wildfires needs more funding, greater focus on forest management and enhanced education about fire risk as the climate changes, the head of the bloc’s crisis response said.
“Climate change is accelerating. So our response must evolve just as quickly,” Hadja Lahbib, the EU’s Crisis Management Commissioner, told Reuters. “We must prepare for risks before disasters strike, and not simply react afterwards.”
Lahbib said it was not enough to just purchase more firefighting equipment, and that countries should also be investing more of their EU funding in forest management practices that reduce wildfire risk, and should better educate citizens on “what behaviour they absolutely must avoid”, to reduce fire risk.
Around 90 percent of wildfires are started by human activities, such as campfires or discarded cigarettes.
Wildfire in southwest France ‘still stable’, regional authorities say
The massive wildfire that has burned some 42,000 hectares in France’s southwest Gironde region over the past week is “still stable” this morning after a second “quiet” night, according to the department’s prefecture.
The prefecture said that several flare-ups had been quickly put out.
“The area burned has not changed,” the prefecture said, while stressing that weather conditions including rising temperatures and dry winds remain “unfavourable” on Wednesday.
Some 2,750 firefighters battled the massive wildfire in France‘s southwest Gironde region.
French authorities ordered the evacuation of 4,000 people from tourist sites on the Atlantic coast.
An ‘orange’ heatwave alert was issued for 16 departments.
