France Seeks EU Help as Wildfire Forces Mass Evacuations

France has asked the European Union for help in tackling a major wildfire near the country’s Atlantic coast, President Emmanuel Macron said on Friday.

“The situation remains extremely tense with the fires hitting our country, particularly in Gironde”, Macron wrote on X.

“France has requested the activation of the European Union’s civil protection mechanism. We will soon be able to count on reinforcements from two Croatian Canadair aircraft, two Portuguese Air Tractor planes, as well as two heavy Black Hawk helicopters from the Czech Republic and Slovakia”, he added.

More than 10,000 people were evacuated overnight in southwestern France as a rapidly spreading wildfire swept through at least 2,400 hectares of land west of Bordeaux, officials said on Thursday.

(Reuters, lud)