France deploys massive cargo aircraft to dump flame retardant on wildfire

France was preparing to use a massive specially adapted cargo aircraft to dump flame retardants on Saturday on a wildfire that has forced the evacuation of tens of thousands of people, including from some suburbs of the wine region city of Bordeaux.

Interior Minister Laurent Nunez said the hulking A400M aircraft will join what is expected to be a “long and very difficult” battle against the blaze raging in the Gironde region of western France. That blaze and another wildfire in the Landes region have together forced 197,000 people to evacuate, he said. With winds expected to shift in a westerly direction on Saturday afternoon, potentially driving the fire closer to Bordeaux, fire crews and authorities were digging trenches, using retardants and taking other steps to block it, Nunez said. He said the fire was about 30 kilometres west of the city.

The government mobilized soldiers to join the battle against the flames and rushed in 1.5 million face masks to protect against choking smoke. The prefect of the Gironde region that includes Bordeaux ordered the evacuation of parts of three of the city’s western suburbs. Other towns and villages further west of the city were also ordered to evacuate.

Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu described the fires as unprecedented and said the Gironde blaze had become so strong that it was generating its own winds.  “Our priority is clear: protecting human lives,” he posted on X, adding that evacuation orders “must be respected without delay.”

He said firefighting teams were being reinforced Saturday with the addition of hundreds of soldiers and that breathing masks to filter out smoke particles were being rushed to the Gironde region for those exposed to the clouds of potentially noxious fumes.