By Alexandre Dimou
ILLE-SUR-TET, France, July 6 (Reuters) – A wildfire burning out of control in southwestern France has forced the evacuation of over 10,000 people from two dozen small towns and villages near the Spanish border and officials said strong winds on Monday would further fan the blaze.
The European Union said on Monday it was sending four waterbombing aircraft to France from Cyprus and Sweden to help firefighters around the city of Perpignan.
“Europe stands with France,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on X
The fire has scorched some 4,600 hectares in the foothills of the French Pyrenees, local prefect Pierre Regnault de la Mothe said in a post on X.
“This morning conditions are deteriorating again,” Interior Minister Laurent Nunez warned on French TV station TF1. “Today the battle resumes.”
Early summer heatwaves in France and across western Europe in May and June have scorched vast areas of land, making them particularly vulnerable to wildfires this year.
The Trevillach blaze, which injured five people, including a firefighter, is burning in the vicinity of the third stage of the Tour de France. Local authorities have closed the leg to the public to allow emergency services easy access to the area. Although the race will proceed, the motorcade of team vehicles that follows will now be kept to a minimum.
On the Spanish side of the border, the fire ravaged 2,200 hectares — 97% of them in the protected natural area of Les Gavarres — but Catalan authorities said late on Saturday that it was stable and would be completely extinguished during the week.
Police have arrested an employee of a company contracted by Catalonia’s regional government who is suspected of having sparked the wildfire by using an angle grinder at the side of a road.
South of Catalonia, in the eastern Castellon province, 500 people were evacuated after a wildfire entered the Sierra de Espadan national park, home to a significant cork oak forest.
(Reporting by Inti Landauro, David Latona and Dominique Vidalon; editing by Richard Lough and Gareth Jones)
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