Europe is seeing record-breaking heatwaves. Deadly wildfires are out of control. The most serious one is 8 km from Bordeaux. Thousands of firefighters are fighting it. Thousands of people were evacuated from the city. A news website 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 before in France. The extreme heat has created "fire clouds". These make their own winds. The boss said the wildfire "is shifting non-stop". He added: "We cannot fight it directly." He said his firefighters were in a David-versus-Goliath situation.
Try the same news story at these levels:
Wildfires - Level 1, 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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