10:25 a.m.: an A400M military transport plane mobilized for the Gironde front
Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu asked the Armed Forces to deploy an A400M military transport plane on Saturday to fight the major fires in Gironde, Matignon announced on Saturday July 25 at mid-morning.
The aircraft must be equipped with a drop kit which can release 20 tonnes of retardant, the equivalent of two Dash planes. Its deployment was previously planned for the very end of the month, due to technical preparation and necessary tests beforehand.
10:08 a.m.: Around a hundred Parisian firefighters sent as reinforcements
Paris firefighters will send additional reinforcements to the South-West on Saturday to fight the fires. Already “45 Paris firefighters with six engines had been engaged for three days” in the South-West, specified Arnaud de Cacqueray, commander of the Paris Fire Brigade (BSPP), who announced the arrival of “around a hundred additional firefighters with different components and mainly a fire extinguishing component”. These numbers are almost three times greater than for the fires of 2022. This decision could impact response times in the capital, the brigade commander told AFP.
9:57 a.m.: 3,500 people welcomed at the Bordeaux Exhibition Center
Around 3,500 people evacuated from the Arcachon basin and towns near Bordeaux, now threatened by the fire, were housed on Saturday morning at the Bordeaux exhibition center transformed into a reception center, the metropolis said.
Two large hangars provided the evacuees with camp beds, floor mats, boxes of clothing and food. Faced with the influx of arrivals, after the order given during the night to “preventatively” evacuate several municipalities on the outskirts of Bordeaux, the metropolis decided to open a second hall, the first being full.
3:23 a.m.: four new municipalities near Bordeaux evacuated overnight
The fire which has been raging since Wednesday in Gironde, in the south-west of France, and is heading towards the Bordeaux metropolis, requires the “preventative” evacuation of four additional municipalities, announced the prefect of the Gironde department, Sophie Brocas, during the night from Friday to Saturday.
This new measure concerns the inhabitants of the municipalities of Saint-Médard-en-Jalles (33,000 inhabitants), Saint-Jean-d’Illac (9,600), Martignas-sur-Jalle (8,000) and Saint-Aubin-de-Médoc (7,800), all close to or part of the metropolis of Bordeaux.
The flames continued during the night from Friday to Saturday to devour the Landes and especially the Gironde, where the authorities are now worried about Bordeaux.
