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??

Please get your family somewhere safer. This is a very serious and dangerous situation

I also think that tourists should try to get away as much and quickly as possible, and free the roads, and not make evacuation of the locals harder and slower.

Everybody needs to be safe, but it's not the same decision to put your 2 suitcases in your car and relocate to another beach camp, or to pack what little of your life you can save with your kids and pets and leave everything else behind.

So, there are things you can do. Download the French emergency app first. Look at it and see what it says.

Charge your phone and power banks.

Decide NOW where you will go if you are evacuated. Look up the route you would like to use to get there and then look up an alternate route. Make notes on a piece of paper. Put that piece of paper in the car where it can be found easily.

A lot of problems in emergencies are caused by indecision. Make some decisions.

It is a lot of money to lose, but you will not be having an enjoyable holiday at this point. I saw the news of the wildfires in Spain where many died as a result of them. I would leave before you could be at risk. The fire may seem to be managed better, but these things are unpredictable and you really don’t want to be stuck there.

At best, you stay there and not much happens, but you have to be constantly glued to the phone and not doing much else. You would not get any sleep as I wouldn’t in that scenario either.

At worst, your life and your family’s lives could be in danger. You get trapped in the area and struggle to leave as the road is full of traffic. You breathe in dangerous fumes that damage your health or worse.

Try to get some of the money back and go home asap. At the very least move to a region in France that is far from the wildfires.

I’m from Australia. If the smoke is blowing your way, so are the fires. Get out of there.

Also from Australia. Better to evacuate too early/unnecessarily than leave it too late.

You won't enjoy your holiday there anyway if there's smoke everywhere and you're braced for an emergency evacuation. Is there somewhere else in France you can get to and at least salvage some of your holiday?

I’d leave.

Please leave, my friend her DD, SIL and two children are being evacuated.

That's what I would do.

What is the company who let you the holiday rental? Surely they are advising you?

This sounds a horrible situation to find yourself in, how are things looking this morning op?

In an area where Gironde, Lot et Garonne and Dordogne all pretty much border one another. Although since I posted last night I found out there was a fire about 15 miles away as well, so it could well have been that.

Having said that, we were here in 2022 as well and the same thing happened. We could see and smell smoke from the fires all the way over near Landes and Biscarosse.

Get out of there.

France is very well equipped to deal with wildfires. Different regions may not be equally well set up but other areas pitch in to help when required. The fact that hundreds of thousands have been evacuated with no deaths reported so far is testament to the strength of their infrastructure to handle these kinds of situations.

As others have said, it really depends on so many factors. Some of these responses telling you to leave are a bit hysterical - I've lived in wildfire zones, fires have come much closer to me than they are to you and I have never had to evacuate because the wind/conditions meant we weren't in danger. We followed the local Civil Defence advice - there must be something similar there?

And then what will you do when the wind changes direction?…….40k isn’t far when a wildfire is heading your way. Surprised you have to ask tbh!

2 firefighters died a couple of days ago in the Bordeaux fires.

Alot less fire alerts this morning, but the smoke has got to us. We are 2 hours from Bordeaux. Still 2 main fires South and West of the City on the Feux site.

None of the advice on here is "hysterical".

Follow the advice of your emergency alerts. We have stayed on islands with active wild fires and driven around them. As long as you aren’t being alerted to leave I would stay

Don’t leave, enjoy your holiday.
Be prepared to leave though, and by that I mean know what your plan is.
You will be alerted in good time to evacuate.

@tygertygers but knowing the area is a very different proposition to being somewhere new where you don't know the areas around you .op wasn't even sure if she could get alerts on her phone

40km is not far atall- id leave, that’s easily travelled in a short time by a wild fire, it could spread that distance in less than a day

We live 3 hours from Bordeaux and the smell of smoke from that fire woke me this morning. The sky is smokey and hazy too.

https://share.google/aiVrvLi5dkVwy3IFe

i’d leave.