Wildfires in northern half of France… as storms and floods hit south

Firefighters in eastern France were on Wednesday (June 14) continuing to battle a major wildfire.

The blaze started near a house close to Épinal - situated around 70 kilometres south of Nancy - before spreading over at least 30 hectares of land.

The prefecture of the department is asking residents and tourists to keep away from the area.

In the south of the country, however - where forest fires are more common - emergency services have been fighting a very different battle: the aftermath of storms and torrential rain.

Two hundred firefighters tackle blaze

The fire in the Vosges department, which started on Tuesday (June 13) in the commune of Bois-de-Champ, close to Épinal, was still ongoing on Wednesday morning.

Although the cause of the fire is still unknown, it started near a house in the area and quickly spread due to the dry conditions in the nearby state-owned woodland.

More than 200 firefighters from both the Grand-Est and Bourgogne Franche-Comté regions came together to fight the blaze, said the prefect of the department, Valérie Michel-Moreaux.

The firefighters “took turns throughout the night to fight the fire in a particularly steep area, in a coniferous forest, and therefore with extremely difficult access conditions,” she added.

A water-bombing helicopter was also flown in from Avignon to assist.

The departmental 420 road between Taintrux and Brouvelieures is currently closed to the public until further notice, as firefighters continue to tackle the fire.

Read more: How does France's new wildfire risk forecast work? Where can I see it?

Floods across the south

Whilst the emergency services in Vosges fight fires, those in the south are dealing with the consequences of yet more storms in the area.

On Tuesday evening, firefighters in Toulouse, Haute-Garonne faced hundreds of callouts, particularly in the north of the city, due to flooding.

The prefecture of the department warned residents that further flooding may occur on Wednesday in the heart of the city, with the banks of the Garonne River – which flows through the centre of la ville rose – in danger of bursting.

On Tuesday, yellow warnings for river floods were in place across the department:

It is not only in Toulouse where floods are wreaking havoc.

In Bouches-du-Rhône, streets were also flooded across towns and villages in the department:

The Pyrénées-Atlantiques department also saw stormy conditions in Saint Jean de Luz:

Elsewhere in the department, flash flooding caused 12 pupils and their teacher to be trapped in a school in Lourdios-Ichère after buildings were submerged by nearly a metre of water. No one was injured.

The mayor of the village, Marthe Clot, was trapped in the town hall after the flooding and injured herself escaping the building through a window, and is currently in a nearby hospital.

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