French investigators probing the suspected deliberate lighting of what has become a raging wildfire in the country’s south west have detained a man for questioning, as firefighters and water-bombing planes continued fighting against the ferocious flames.
Two huge fires feeding on tinder-dry pine forests in the Gironde region have forced tens of thousands of people to flee homes and summer vacation spots since they broke out on July 12.
One of the blazes, raging south of Bordeaux, is suspected to have been started deliberately.
A motorist told police that he saw a vehicle speeding away from the spot where that fire started on July 12.
The motorist pulled over and tried, unsuccessfully, to extinguish the flames, the Bordeaux prosecutor’s office said. Criminal investigators subsequently found evidence pointing to possible arson, it said.
The man taken in for questioning was detained on Monday afternoon.
The 39-year-old lives in Gironde, the prosecutor’s office said, adding that he was previously questioned in 2012 on suspicion of starting a forest fire but that investigation was shelved in 2014 for lack of evidence.
Water-bombing planes and more than 2,000 firefighters are working day and night to contain that fire and another fierce blaze south west of Bordeaux that investigators are treating as accidental.
The blazes have already burned through more than 70 square miles of forest and vegetation, Gironde authorities said.
Thick clouds of smoke and the risk of flames spreading to buildings have forced the evacuations of more than 37,000 people, including 16,000 on Monday alone.
A smaller third fire broke out late on Monday in the Medoc wine region north of Bordeaux, further taxing regional firefighting resources.
Those evacuated on Monday included 74 residents of a retirement home. Animals were also evacuated from a zoo.
Five camp sites went up in flames in the Atlantic coast beach zone south west of Bordeaux, around the Arcachon maritime basin famous for its oysters and resorts.
But weather forecasts on Tuesday offered some consolation, with heatwave temperatures easing along the Atlantic seaboard and rain expected late in the day.
The head of Spain’s Civil Protection and Emergencies agency, Leonardo Marcos Gonzalez, said on Tuesday that extreme heat and wildfires have hit the country three weeks earlier than usual this year and many fires broke out at the same time.
“We are in the midst of the most significant civil protection emergency on record,” he told radio station SER.
In Portugal, cooling temperatures have eased pressure on emergency crews, with just two major wildfires being tackled by around 800 firefighters on Tuesday, but more hot weather is forecast for Wednesday.
Authorities suspect a wildfire is to blame for the death of a couple in their 80s whose car went off the road and overturned in a northern Portuguese village late on Monday. The charred vehicle with two bodies inside was found after a blaze engulfed the area, and officials suspect they were killed while trying to flee the flames.
The pilot of a water-dumping plane also died in Portugal last week when his aircraft crashed while fighting a wildfire.
