New evacuation from tourist sites near Bordeaux as France and Spain fight wildfires

Firefighters work to put out fire hotspots at Le Grand Crohot, near the Cap Ferret peninsula, in France’s Gironde department on Tuesday. Photograph: Florion Goga/Reuters View image in fullscreen Firefighters work to put out fire hotspots at Le Grand Crohot, near the Cap Ferret peninsula, in France’s Gironde department on Tuesday. Photograph: Florion Goga/Reuters New evacuation from tourist sites near Bordeaux as France and Spain fight wildfires French authorities order evacuation of almost 4,000 people from Lacanau resort amid return of heatwave Europe live – latest updates The evacuation of nearly 4,000 people from tourist sites on France’s Atlantic coast is under way as the return of winds and extreme heat jeopardised firefighters’ battles to contain wildfires raging to the west of Bordeaux. The precautionary evacuation order, which covers campsites, holiday villages and other tourist accommodation around the resort of Lacanau, exacerbated a wildfire emergency described by the French president, Emmanuel Macron, as the “toughest” situation the country had dealt with “since the second world war”. On a visit to a crisis centre in Bordeaux, Macron warned that “the coming weeks will be tough and we have to hold out”. Rémi Lassoureille, a fire commander in the Gironde department, was quoted by Le Monde as saying that the blaze, which has destroyed 42,000 hectares (104,000 acres) of forest, was “relatively under control”, although firefighters feared a “potential flare-up of the fire on its north-west flank towards Lacanau”. ‘Ash fell from the sky’: Tourists describe fleeing ‘apocalyptic’ wildfires in France Read more “That is why we decided to evacuate the campsites,” he said. Map showing burnt areas near French coast west of Bordeaux Other large fires have been contained in the nearby Landes, where thousands of evacuees were allowed to return home, and the Écrins massif in the French Alps, although one in the Gros Bessillon massif in the Var area of south-east France has not yet been fully brought under control. Wildfires in France, Spain and Italy have forced the evacuation of about 330,000 people over the past week, with Spain entering Europe’s fourth intense heatwave of the summer attempting to contain some of the worst forest fires in the country’s history. The Spanish prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, said the country faced “difficult hours, complex hours” before the new heatwave, which is forecast to begin on Wednesday, although he later said that authorities were beginning to “see light at the end of the tunnel in the fight against wildfires”, while warning about the urgency of responding to the climate emergency. A fire in the hilly terrain of Ávila, west of Madrid, has become Spain’s largest on record, burning 50,000 hectares. Map showing burnt areas near Ávila, west of Madrid The firefighter Javier García told Associated Press he had never faced anything like it in his two decades protecting woodlands and rural communities. “This doesn’t have