More than 20,000 tourists and residents were forced to evacuate as wildfires burned out of control on the southwestern coast of France on Thursday.
France has been battered by three heatwaves since May as part of increasingly common extreme weather episodes linked to climate change, causing excess deaths, drying up rivers and fuelling wildfires.
The blaze in Le Porge, just south of Medoc wine country, had ripped through 3100ha since Wednesday, firefighters said.
An isolated home was destroyed but no casualties have been reported, state official Sophie Brocas said.
The authorities said they had evacuated 12,000 residents and tourists from campsites and holiday lets, then a further 8800 from more camping sites on Thursday.
Helicopters made repeated runs over houses with shuttered windows, and fire engines tore up and down the road.
Patrick Martineau, 69, was among hundreds of residents living on the edge of the forest who had to leave quickly.
He said: “Police came banging on the doors of all the houses. It’s a bit scary. When we bought a home here, we never thought there would be a fire risk.”
Around 700 firefighters have been battling the flames on land, while several firefighting planes have been dumping water from the sky since the blaze erupted around midday on Wednesday.
It then roared through the dense woodland, with flames soaring to 10 metres in some areas.
Fires in 2022 damaged 30,000ha of the same forest, forcing about 50,000 people to be evacuated.
The wildfire is just the latest in France and across Europe in recent weeks.
In southern France, a fire in the area of Ponteves northeast of the city of Marseille had stabilised on Thursday after ripping through 2500ha and destroying 10 houses, officials said.
Roaring flames devastated a tenth of the Unesco-listed Fontainebleau forest outside Paris, in a rare fire so far north.
Of the 53 heatwaves recorded nationwide since 1947 until late June, half have occurred since 2010, according to national weather office Meteo-France.
Scientists have long warned that climate change caused by human use of fossil fuels will make periods of drought more intense and longer-lasting, creating the ideal conditions for wildfires.
- AFP