On holiday near wildfires - WTF to do?

[thetinsoldier]

We’re in Bordeaux, 40k from the fires. It’s really smoky, the sun is covered by smoke and it’s really quite scary. Have spoken to neighbours and they say the smoke is just being blown this way, we’re not in danger, but it’s horrible and scary.

What would you do??

I'm not making money out of anyone, I'm not hosting anyone and I live 2 hours away...

Your threat was clear in your words

Tell the host 1000 EUR insufficient in the circs and remind them that you can review them if you don’t cancel their booking.
A 1* review plus a complaint they offered you a paltry refund in a wildfire is not in their interest.

What is in everyone's interest is getting everyone out safely not spending time sending threatening emails to hosts.

I hope that you are safe. I have been in a forest fire a few years and it was terrifying. We were lucky to have the fire service working around us. We were evacuated but chose to stay and provide what we could, with a car ready for a speedy exit. Stay safe.

You need to go. Fire is one of the hardest things to predict and Europe is woefully unequipped. It’s truly not worth it.

You were lucky. It's all very well having car for a quick exit, but what if your exit is blocked by fire or other cars or debris like burned trees that have fallen across the road? What if the car doesn't respond well to the heat of the nearby fires? You really should evacuate if you're told to. I'm very glad you were OK.

@thetinsoldier
This morning there were thunderstorms - caused by the fire - and rain.

Those were caused by pyrocumulus clouds as a result of the wildfire. We could watch them form from our front lawn when fires were raging higher in the Sierras and we'd pray it was the 'right kind' that brought lots of rain. Nature's way of putting out fires. But nature can also be a real bitch, because if the fires were big enough those clouds turned to cumulonimbus which could bring dry lightning and start other fires.

Leave. Even if the fire isn't with you now the air is full of nasties... if that level of pollution was on the streets of London there'd be riots!

This article is from last year, but it might be useful for anyone reading as it has insurance information in?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c626zp6k4g7o

What? One of "those partners"? 🤣 This sounds like some crazy projecting, completely outside of this post... I think you need to create your own thread!

Fires are scary and move fast.
i would leave.. go to the city well away wooded area.
Money spent is worthless, you need to protect yourselves.

Oops, posted too late .. parts of Bordeaux is now being evacuated.

Morning, it's 0700 local,.just catching up with national news.

For clarification despite some comments the reality at least ATM is that Bordeaux City is not being evacuated...

Last night the main problems seem to have been in the countryside.to the south West of the city so a bit like the previous night some communes outside the rocade were evacuated as a precaution..

The A63 autoroute that runs along the coast from Bordeaux to Biarritz has been subject to closures.

Fire fighting continues.

Can't believe you're even asking on here - surely any sensible person would listen to local news reports and public announcements about evacuation procedures etc etc.

As of last night this is the list of évacuation towns/districts.

Watching the French news last night -terrible scenes, really heartbreaking / people losing their homes and the fire service taking about the difficult choices they have to make about what to prioritise. Peoplestuck in gridlock jams trying to evacuate.
And still on FB tourists are saying they have train tickets for Bordeaux, should they go, don’t want to ‘lose’ their money. (POV /it’s spent /you are not losing bring by doing the right thing in staying away instead of selfishly insisiting on going ahead with your holiday and making even more of a logistical problem for the emergency services.)

As you may know with regard to train tickets SNCF are discouraging travel into the area and offering flexibility/refunds.on tickets already.l bought.

I'm not sure how far inland the OP has gone, but I'm a good two hours drive east of Bordeaux, and one hour from Dordogne, and yesterday morning the smoke blew in. Everything went very dark and hazy, and the acrid smell of smoke filled the air. I had to close all the windows very quickly... As I had to pop into the city which is 45 minutes further east still, it was as bad if not worse there. It was unpleasant to be outside breathing in the smokey air, and the storm also hit here. The city was almost invisible driving in, due to the lack of visibility.

We were due for more of the same today, but the wind must have changed, as the air is good again for now, but it really depends on which way the wind blows. I would have headed north and booked a cheap holiday on the Brittany coast, maybe on the granite coast, or somewhere in Finistere, where temperatures won't be too hot, and there's little danger of fire or smoke blowing in.

What’s it with that “it’s spent so you are not losing” argument? People spent money on a holiday. If this is lost they have to find NEW money on a different holiday. So yes, there is clearly a financial loss. Even if they already spent them.

some compassion could be nice. Holidays are expensive and lots of people can’t afford pay for a second one just like thst. Lots of people would have saved really hard and it may have been their only holiday for years.

and maybe they are not selfishly insisting but trying to figure out which areas are truly affected as it’s hard to figure out if you are not local. If they are staying in Bordeaux itself they are not creating a problem.

You mean you one hour past Dordogne?

@BlackRowan

If they are staying in Bordeaux itself they are not creating a problem.

Agree..

It's potentially a fast changing game but from what I'm hearing from someone in Bordeaux itself hotels/restaurants in the city are open for business.

Should have added to the above that the air quality is however reported to be utterly pants...

That’s not what I meant, sorry about my post making it sound like that, I meant go home.

I just thought your partner was not being supportive because you seemed to be the one being stressed, posting here, taking to neighbours, talking to vrbo, talking to the insurance company etc. if they was my husband and he was that worried, I’d say ‘let’s get out of here, we are leaving’.

That’s all I gathered from your posts and apologies if I got that wrong. I was in a relationship previously where it was treated like I was overreacting, when it was actually a very dangerous situation and sometimes you have to just follow your own instincts and GO.

I hope you manage to enjoy the rest of you holiday x

You definitely need to broadcast this info at least via Trust Pilot once this is over. It's good at least that your host is being probably as reasonable as they can be in these circumstances. It's horrible for all of you. Vrbo is only interested in profits.

About 50 minutes north of Dordogne, and two hours east of Bordeaux. I was in Limoges yesterday which is probably around 3 hours drive east of the fires, and it was bad there too. I can't imagine what it's like for anyone who's closer to the fires - it must be hell.

Oh no, we are going from Clarente maritime to Dordogne tomorrow, to see family. Oh well, hope the winds will change. We had smoke smell where we are yesterday (north of Bordeaux) but it cleared out today so hopefully next week will be fine.

Yes, we’re currently an hour south of Poitiers, so a fairly long way from Bordeaux, but the air quality yesterday was really bad. (There is another fire northwest of Poitiers too.) We’re surrounded by forest, so I spent all day on edge.

But I kept reminding myself that when I’m at home and there are wildfires around Surrey (where I live) it never occurs to me to pack everything up and drive away. My son’s in Manchester and there have been two bad wildfires nearby for a couple of weeks, but nobody in Manchester is leaving (unless they have respiratory difficulties I guess — he says the air quality has been dreadful there too.)

I think this has a lot to do with psychogeography — a fire 20 miles away from my home, when I know what that distance means (eg there are five or six small towns in between, there are two or three big roads in between, there are two or three rivers in between) ‘feels’ quite distant, whereas the mental geography of a less familiar place ‘feels’ much more collapsed, if that makes sense? If you’re looking at a tiny map of France the fires all look close together, but France is a big country (two and a half times the size of the UK I think) so the actual distances are pretty big. It’s like looking at a map of the south coast with fires in Fowey, Southampton, Brighton and Dover and thinking the whole of the south coast is dangerous.

And it probably wouldn’t help to have all the tourists in southern France suddenly take to the roads. The air quality is much better today — I guess the wind changed direction.

My heart goes out to anyone near Bordeaux, whether on holiday or residents. Climate change is real and it is devastating for human communities all over the world.