Wildfire forces additional 55,000 evacuations in France's Gironde region

A wildfire in France's Gironde region forced the evacuation of 55,000 people overnight, bringing the total number of evacuees in the area to 220,000, authorities said. The blaze, which has been burning since midweek, has expanded to an estimated 42,000 hectares, an area roughly four times the size of Paris, according to the regional prefecture.

Interior Minister Laurent Nunez described the night as "difficult" for fire crews and said the situation remained "very unfavorable." He added that the fire had become "extremely virulent" and unpredictable, generating its own winds and advancing toward the Bordeaux metropolitan area, before calming by the end of the night.

Firefighters, supported by 2,500 personnel, 18 aircraft and a converted A400M military cargo plane, are using ground and aerial tactics to slow the fire's progress toward Bordeaux. The mayor of Bordeaux, Thomas Cazenave, said the blaze was about 15 kilometers from the city and that an evacuation of Bordeaux itself was not planned at this time.

The city has opened a large exhibition centre as an emergency shelter, providing beds and food for thousands of evacuees, including residents of care homes. A separate fire in the Landes region has displaced 36,000 people, while another blaze in the Var region has forced nearly 3,000 evacuations.

In neighboring Spain, wildfires in the Valencia region and west of Madrid have led to evacuations affecting 116,000 people, and a fire in a Valencia suburb resulted in one fatality.