Image source, AFP via Corentin BaudryTwo firefighters have died while battling a huge blaze near Bordeaux Airport in south-west France, officials have said.
The country’s Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez said he had been informed about the deaths by officials in the Gironde department. He added that it was a “building fire”.
Reports in French media say the blaze near one of the parking lots at the airport originated from a brush fire.
Some 100 firefighters, backed by specialist aircraft, are reported to be trying to extinguish the blaze. Images have emerged on social media showing passengers getting off a plane looking at a massive plume of smoke nearby.
Image source, ReutersA number of flights scheduled to arrive at the airport have been delayed.
Nuñez reported the two deaths during a question-and-answer session at the French parliament on Tuesday.
The minister said he would travel to Gironde “as soon as possible” to oversee the firefighting efforts.
Gironde is one of several French departments ravaged by wildfires in recent days, due to a series of unusual prolonged heatwaves.
A new blaze is reported to have also broken out on Tuesday in the south-eastern Var department.
France has registered nearly 11,000 fires since the beginning of the year, with President Emmanuel Macron saying last week that there had not been so many blazes in the country since World War Two.
Tuesday’s satellite data from the European Forest Fire Information System (Effis) shows that more than 42,000 hectares (103,784 acres) burned in France between January and mid-July, surpassing the previous record set in 2022.
Climate change is driving up temperatures around the world, and Europe is the fastest warming continent, heating up twice as fast as the global average, according to the Copernicus Climate Change Service.
This is causing increased summer heatwaves, greater pressure on Europe’s water supply, and more intense wildfires.
The record-breaking temperatures across Europe this summer have led to major wildfires, most notably in Spain where at least 13 people have been killed.
Some 29,000 hectares of land have been destroyed by a massive wildfire north of the Spanish capital Madrid.
