Bordeaux mayor says city has no current evacuation plan as fires burn nearby

Bordeaux Mayor Thomas Cazenave said on Sunday that authorities had no current plan to evacuate the southwest French city because of nearby forest fires, but were ready for possible changes.

Cazenave said officials were very vigilant and that the fire was still on the edge of the metropolitan area, but was further south and not advancing on the western side. He said there were no current plans to move the city's 270,000 residents.

He estimated that the flames were 25 to 30 kilometres from the city itself and about 15 kilometres from the metropolitan area near Martignas-sur-Jalle. The town, on the far western edge of the metropolitan area and home to 8,000 people, has been evacuated.

Firefighters have been trying to hold the blazes back from Bordeaux, which lies in a major wine-growing region. Authorities have evacuated thousands of people from villages near the city.

Guillaume Millet of the Gironde fire and rescue service said the unpredictability of the fire was making the response harder. He said the fire had no clear direction and could not be predicted.

Some people in Le Barp, about 30 kilometres south of Bordeaux, refused to evacuate, while others said they did not know where to go. Sebastien Piquet, a 50-year-old former soldier, said his wife and son had left but he was staying because he wanted to help his brother-in-law evacuate a kennel with 60 dogs if needed.

The fire, believed to have started accidentally in Saumos on Wednesday, has burned about 42,000 hectares and led to the evacuation of 220,000 people. The source described it as one of the largest such operations in French history.

Bordeaux was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2007 in recognition of its urban and architectural ensemble.