Firefighters Hold Bordeaux Area Wildfires in Check as Heatwave Intensifies

BORDEAUX, France, July 29 - French fire crews kept a large blaze west of Bordeaux that had triggered mass evacuations contained overnight, ahead of expected higher temperatures and winds forecast to fuel fires on Wednesday.

"The night was calm; the fire remains contained this morning, with several flare-ups rapidly extinguished during the night," Sophie Brocas, the prefect of the Gironde department, wrote in a post on X at 0400 GMT Wednesday.

The wildfire in the Landes region west of Bordeaux, a popular vacation spot, has destroyed 42,000 hectares (103,784 acres) of mostly pine forests after an extended dry period caused by multiple heatwaves.

After fighting the fire for a week, crews with help from European counterparts have managed to hold the blaze back. But another heatwave, the fourth this summer, is set to make conditions more unstable in the coming hours.

Temperatures in the area are forecast to reach 42 degrees Celsius (108 degrees Fahrenheit) on Wednesday, according to Meteo-France, while dry winds from the southwest in the morning and from the west in the afternoon are likely to fan the flames, Brocas said.

France is experiencing an unprecedented wildfire season. The burned area has already exceeded the prior record year of 2022.

The Landes region is covered by pine woodlands, which become highly flammable when dry. The fire burned several hundred homes.