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??

It doesn't matter how many people have been arrested for arson, it's as big and serious and uncontrollable as it is because climate change has caused the drought, the heat, the whole conditions.
Anyone who doesn't see this- well, words fail me really.
Hope you're ok now OP. I'm not sure I'd be returning to the holiday home to tie up loose ends but if you do, very best of luck.

There's a whole psychology around arsonists, they love the drama.

In my first job at a London NHS hospital we we were taught arson is the main cause of fires in hospitals, and arsonists get a kick out of watching a dozen fire engines and an aerial platform being sent to a high risk building.

I happily burn them at the stake tbh.

@AuxArmesCitoyens

I can 1000% assure you it’s much worse in Britain. The cuts to all public services are much more severe and their organisation skills aren’t great, so British people on this thread criticising French evacuation response is just bizarre

The UK has no dedicated national fleet of water-bombing planes like the Canadair CL-415s used in France, Spain, Italy and Greece. Fire services generally rely on commercially contracted helicopters with water buckets rather than government-owned firefighting planes.

There is also no large scale or national wildfire firefighting teams. There are some local teams here and there but UK is not capable of quickly doing an organised response to a large scale wildfire.

I am not saying that French authorities or response is perfect but everything is relative

Of course it matters. These people, whatever their motivation, are making an already desperate situation even worse.
I wasn't commenting about climate change, merely adding this detail as a few PP were expressing surprise at how people could do such a thing. When I saw the official figures myself I was astounded at how high they were.

Britain doesn't have the same history of wildfires as France though, for obvious reasons. Nowhere in Britain gets as hot and dry as southern France. We have been having major wildfires for decades and they are getting more widespread and severe. It's been a major threat that successive governments have failed to take seriously. Not so much in the UK.

I was alone with two teens in 2002 I think on a campsite in SE France surrounded by forest fires. I can remember sitting by the pool
amd the sky was black. That night we were evacuated up the road for around 8 hours. I had a friend with a caravan a mile away and we bunked in with her for a while and then were just sort of stuck in the car waiting to be allowed back at midnight. I’m assuming we were scared but all I can recall is the mad dash to grab water and passports. The caravan site half a mile down the road was burnt to the ground that night which was a sobering sight. The caravans were literally flattened to the ground. I think the cause of those fires that year were arson but it was also v v hot. It’s easy for us here to say Get out now but I’m not entirely sure I’d do that until
advised by officials personally

We are having terrible wildfires in Scotland as we speak , they just don’t seem to be in the news much for some reason.

Is it because they’re not leading to as many evacuations because not as many people live/holiday there? I have read about them, but nowhere as much as the French ones.

300 hectares in the Cairngorms, while dreadful, is considerably smaller in scale than 42,000 hectares in the Gironde, four times the size of Paris, which is just one of several dozen fires across the country.

FFS, please read my post more carefully. If 90% were caused deliberately then those fires would not have started due to climate change - they were caused by someone maliciously starting them! Im not saying that climate change isnt happening. I'm saying that thankfully not all the fires were started due to cc

There's a fire in Romford tonight on a farm. Witness said that they'd seen kids with blow torches riding bikes. Now who wouldn't report that.

Wtf is wrong with people?! I despair...

Last year Wildfires scorched more than 40,000 hectares of land across the UK – an area more than twice the size of the Scottish city of Glasgow. This year I think the record is set to be higher.

Most fires are human in origin but set accidentally, not maliciously, e.g. by sparks from farm machinery striking flints or chainsaws overheating.

Exactly!
Hence why people are being advised not to use them . I used an angle grinder for the first time the other day and want that c level of sparks! Would be carnage using that in s pine first right now.

An update: Bordeaux is fine today. No smoke, air quality ok.

Tidying up house, leaving keys, then heading home.

They still have farms in Romford?

thetinsoldier
Safe journey back. I hope you have enjoyed some of your holiday 🤞

How far were the flames from the house in the end?

Hope you have a safe journey back @thetinsoldier and that you managed to enjoy at least part of your holiday .

AHH....ok ...thank you :)

In the case of the Spanish fires, an man had been arrested for starting it by using an illegal digger.

I'm glad you are safe and on your way home.

My mum sent me a photo of the fires this morning, they are very close to her now and looks like its still spreading. I hope everyone out there stays safe x

Where is your Mum? I’m supposed to be flying out next week for work and second guessing it.

For info: The Gironde area fires are meant to be very much reduced/under control and people are being allowed to return to most if not all of the evacuated communes

if someone is.going to make a post simply stating fires are getting closer a location might be useful (? Var).