France evacuates 20,000 as fire rages in pine forest

Flames roared through crackling pine trees on Thursday as a wildfire gained ground on the coast of southwestern France, forcing more than 20,000 tourists and residents to flee to safety.

France has been battered by three heatwaves since May as part of increasingly common extreme weather episodes linked to climate change, causing excess deaths, drying up rivers and fuelling wildfires.

The blaze in Le Porge, just south of Medoc wine country, had ripped through 3,100 hectares -- an area four and a half times the size of Gibraltar -- since Wednesday, firefighters said.

An isolated home was destroyed but no casualties have been reported, state official Sophie Brocas said.

The authorities said they had evacuated 12,000 residents and tourists from campsites and holiday lets late on Wednesday, then a further 8,800 from more camping sites on Thursday.

Skies in the coastal village of Le Porge, near the city of Bordeaux, were orange early on Thursday morning.

Wisps of smoke rose from charred or crackling tree trunks between Le Porge and the village of Lege-Cap-Ferret to the south, AFP journalists said.

Helicopters made repeated runs over houses with shuttered windows, and fire engines tore up and down the road.

Patrick Martineau, 69, was among hundreds of residents living on the edge of the forest who had to leave quickly.

"Police came banging on the doors of all the houses," he said.

"It's a bit scary," he added.

"When we bought a home here, we never thought there would be a fire risk."

In the neighbouring village of Lege-Cap-Ferret, Elke Urbain and her two daughters spent the night in a community hall after being evacuated.

"We were at the beach and they told us to go back to the campsite to grab our things," said the 50-year-old from Belgium.

"We're not scared because we're being looked after but we're sad for the locals," she added.

Around 700 firefighters have been battling the flames on land, while several firefighting planes have been dumping water from the sky since the blaze erupted around midday on Wednesday.

It then roared through the dense woodland, with flames soaring to 10 metres (33 feet) in some areas.

Le Porge mayor Martial Zaninetti and a resident said the fire appeared to have been started by a brush-clearing machine.

Police were looking into an accident that ignited the blaze.

Bernard Roche, a 75-year-old former lifeguard, evacuated his cabin in the woods on Wednesday.

"The forest has been particularly dry these past few days," he said.

Fires in 2022 damaged 30,000 hectares of the same forest, forcing some 50,000 people to be evacuated.

The wildfire is just the latest in France in recent weeks.

In southern France, a fire in the area of Ponteves northeast of the city of Marseille had stabilised on Thursday after ripping through 2,500 hectares and destroying 10 houses, officials said.

Roaring flames devastated a tenth of the UNESCO-listed Fontainebleau forest outside Paris, in a rare such fire so far north.

Of the 53 heatwaves recorded nationwide since 1947 until late June, half have occurred since 2010, according to national weather office Meteo-France.

Scientists have long warned that climate change caused by human use of fossil fuels will make periods of drought more intense and longer-lasting, creating the ideal conditions for wildfires.