10,000 Evacuated as Wildfire Scorches French Pyrenees
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- Wildfire near Trévillach in the foothills of the French Pyrenees, close to Perpignan and the Spanish border, has burned at least 4,600 hectares (11,366 acres), prompting evacuation orders for more than 10,000 people across over a dozen small towns and villages
- Interior Minister Laurent Nunez warned on TF1 that conditions were deteriorating again Monday and 'the battle resumes,' with strong winds forecast to further fan the blaze
- Tour de France organizers directed spectators to stay away from the final 40km of Monday's 195.9km third stage (Granollers to Les Angles) so emergency vehicles could access the area; race director Christian Prudhomme called for 'exceptional measures for an exceptional fire'
- EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced the bloc would deploy four aircraft based in Cyprus and Sweden to assist emergency efforts
- Neighbouring Spain has also been hit: more than 2,200 hectares destroyed in the Les Gavarres natural reserve (Catalan authorities called it stable late Saturday) and 500 people evacuated in Castellon province after a fire entered the Sierra de Espadán national park
- Temperatures could again reach 40C in south-west France this week after exceeding 40C in parts of Portugal and Spain; BBC Weather's Matt Taylor said the heatwave would be 'exceptional for the time of year' with little widespread rain forecast, keeping wildfire risk elevated
- June's record-breaking heatwave caused at least 2,025 excess deaths in France, 1,222 in Belgium and roughly 480 in the Netherlands; the Copernicus climate service says Europe is warming twice as fast as the global average
Why it matters: More than 10,000 evacuees and a 4,600-hectare burn scar in a single French department show the early-summer fire season has already outrun June's record heatwave, forcing rare disruption to the Tour de France and pulling EU aerial firefighting assets from as far as Cyprus and Sweden — a concrete escalation that compounds the 2,025 excess heat deaths France recorded just weeks ago.
