France: About 8000 people and a thousand animals evacuated due to the fires
French police announced that, due to fires raging for several days, about 8,000 people were evacuated on Monday, July 18, 2022, from two areas, in the Arcachon basin on the edge of the Atlantic Ocean in southwest France.
More than 1,000 animals will also be evacuated in the coming hours from the zoo located in the same city, the French Association of Zoos announced.
The Gironde has been subject to two giant fires for a week, already burning more than 13,000 hectares of vegetation.
A spokesman for the Gironde firefighters explained that the evacuations were due to the harmful smoke from the nearby fires and not because of the fire itself.
Many veterinarians attended with their medical equipment to keep pace with the evacuation of animals, especially those most sensitive to smoke.
Near the other big fire, located in the far east interior, south of Bordeaux, 3,500 people were also evacuated from their homes at midday, in the municipalities of Landeras, Podus and Balisac, according to an earlier police press release.
The Gironde, along with 14 other districts on the western side of France, were put on a red alert Monday by Meteorological France, due to a heat wave that could lead to new historical temperature records in certain regions.
The spread of extreme weather events is a direct result of global warming according to scientists, with greenhouse gas emissions increasing in intensity, duration and frequency.
Follow our latest local and sports news and the latest political and economic developments via Google news