The fires in France force the border in Irun to be closed for hours

The fires in the southwest of France have forced the authorities of that country to keep this Thursday closed sections of the A63 motorway, which connects to the border with Spain in Irún, for five hours. The A63 was closed in the direction of Bordeaux at the height of Saint Geours de Marmne, while the trucks had to divert before, in Biriatou.

The vehicles were diverted to the A64 to surround the area affected by the fires, which according to the authorities have already ravaged 6,800 hectares in that area, where more than 1,100 firefighters work to try to stop the advance of the flames.

The closure of borders has caused retentions of up to five kilometers in Irun and large truck jams.

Firefighters indicated that the progress of the flames has stopped slightly compared to the day before. The Prefecture (Government delegation) explained that reinforcements are expected to arrive in the next few hours, but that the weather conditions are “difficult.

“The vegetation on the ground is extraordinarily dry after more than a month without rain. Temperatures of 40 degrees and they should stay that way until Saturdaytogether with the dryness of the air, which generates a severe risk of the fire being fanned,” he said in a statement.

Some 10,000 people have been evacuated in the area as a precaution, given the risk that the fire could affect inhabited areas.

47,000 hectares burned

This wave of fires is destroying thousands of hectares in France, in particular in the Gironde department, in the south-west of the country, where 6,000 hectares have already been burned and 6,000 people have had to be evacuated by one of the most important fires remembered in the country.

After a month of July in which 47,000 hectares burned In France, a record in that month, according to the European Fire Information System, the situation became complicated again in the last few hours due to weather conditions.

Attention is focused on Gironde, where the fire seemed controlled in recent days but it has reignited during the early hours and has spread with enormous speed, reaching an area of ​​six football pitches per minute, according to the Prefecture. The authorities estimate that the fire has been rekindled at about 40 points simultaneously, although for now they do not advance hypotheses about the origin of the flames.

The violence of the fire and the speed of its spread have led the authorities to evacuate 6,000 inhabitants of different municipalities, while for now it is estimated that 16 houses have already been affected by the flames. Many of those affected were already evacuated last July due to another major fire that broke out in the region and ended up destroying 13,000 hectares.

Faced with the violence of the flames, the Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, announced a reinforcement of the means to combat the flames. Through a message on the social network Twitter, he assured that more than 1,000 firefighters, nine planes and two helicopters They will fight that fire.

“The priority is to save human lives”indicated the prefect delegate of Gironde, Martin Guespereau, who assured that the day is presented “very complicated” because of the high temperatures, around 40 degrees, and the wind.

crisis cabinet

The Executive, which last week opened a crisis cabinet to follow the consequences of the drought, including the fires, has deployed military means throughout the country to contribute to the extinction of the fires.

In Meine-et-Loire, between the towns of Angers and Le Mans, the flames have already destroyed some 1,200 hectares and they continue without control, for which the authorities fear that it will spread to a wooded area that could make their extinction difficult and affect another 700 hectares.

Darmanin will travel this afternoon to the department of Aveyron, where the flames have already destroyed some 700 hectares of vegetation, an “unprecedented” area in that area, according to the Prefecture, and where the fire is still uncontrolled, according to the authorities, who About 2,000 people have been evacuated..

Further east, in the Drôme department, some 300 hectares have already been devastated by the flames, which continue to progress uncontrollably and have caused minor injuries to three firefighters during the extinction work. During the early morning, the fire in the Chartreuse massif, in the Isère department, where almost 200 hectares have been affected and some 170 people evacuated.