As a heatwave scorches Western Europe, some 38,500 people have been evacuated away from forest fires raging in France’s southwestern Gironde region. No deaths have been reported as of Wednesday, but holidaymakers at campsites near the Dune du Pilat – Europe’s tallest sand dune, perched amid a forest on the Atlantic Coast – had their belongings go up in smoke. FRANCE 24 reports.
Piles of twisted metal were still smoking where holidaymakers’ caravans used to be. A few tents had somehow escaped the flames, left standing in a landscape of charred bikes and barbecues. This was the scene at a campsite near the Dune du Pilat on Tuesday, the day after it was destroyed with five other campsites in the Gironde.
