This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.
News
Forest fire rages through Bordeaux
A forest fire that started on Friday was still raging through Bordeaux on Sunday night with water-bombers deployed to try to keep the blaze under control.
As reported by Wine-Searcher, the fire, one of the worst in France in five years, started in the western outskirts of Bordeaux near Pessac, home to first growth Château Haut-Brion, last Friday.
Efforts were stepped up yesterday to try to tame the blaze, which tore through a pine plantation and spread quickly due to 30mph winds fanning the flames.
It is thought that the fire has already consumed around 550 hectares of forest on the western edges of the city.
Over 500 firemen and seven firefighting planes have been deployed to put out the blaze, the cause of which remains unknown.
As a precaution, 40 households have had to be evacuated in the town of Saint-Jean-d’Illac, while 80 residents of a psychiatric facility in the Bordeaux suburb of Pessac were moved to a local gym.
On Sunday evening the fire had calmed but was neither contained nor under control with active areas and flying sparks. Much of France is currently experiencing a drought.