Europe is experiencing record-breaking temperatures and heatwaves. Deadly wildfires are out of control. The most serious of these is near the city of Bordeaux. The huge wildfire is just 8 km from the city. Thousands of firefighters are fighting it. On Monday, 17,000 residents were evacuated from the city. Tens of thousands more might have to leave. A news site said the city looked worryingly like "the darkest days of the Covid-19 pandemic".
A firefighting boss said the kind of wildfire near Bordeaux has never been seen in France before. He said the extreme heat has created "fire clouds". These make their own winds, which make the fires suddenly spread. The boss said the fire-cloud wildfire was very hard to put out. He said: "It is shifting non-stop. We cannot fight it directly." He said his firefighters were in a David-versus-Goliath situation. Bordeaux locals are worrying about their future.
Try the same news story at these levels:
Wildfires - Level 0, Wildfires - Level 2 or Wildfires - Level 3
Sources- https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20260726-french-firefighters-face-pyrocumulonimbus-for-first-time
- https://www.france24.com/en/france/20260727-i-spent-the-night-coughing-wildfire-smoke-leaves-bordeaux-residents-struggling-to-breathe
- https://www.euronews.com/my-europe/2026/07/26/pedro-sanchez-the-scale-of-the-disaster-we-are-living-through-is-very-hard-to-accept
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