{"id":612398,"date":"2026-07-30T21:51:14","date_gmt":"2026-07-30T21:51:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/612398\/"},"modified":"2026-07-30T21:51:14","modified_gmt":"2026-07-30T21:51:14","slug":"so-many-people-have-lost-their-homes-fury-and-grief-in-french-village-ravaged-by-wildfire-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/612398\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018So many people have lost their homes\u2019: Fury and grief in French village ravaged by wildfire \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

A wooden swing set stands untouched beside a burnt-out cottage in the village of Le Porge on the outskirts of Bordeaux. The fire was like that \u2013 erratic, torching homes while leaving some neighbours untouched.<\/p>\n

Of the 240 homes that were burned by one of the largest wildfires<\/a> in France<\/a>\u2019s history, 183 were here in Le Porge, a coastal village of 3,500, a 45-minute drive from Bordeaux.<\/p>\n

A hose lies on the grass, burnt cars are parked by blackened homes \u2013 signs of life interrupted at the moment residents realised they had to leave immediately.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was confusion, panic,\u201d said a retired resident who evacuated to stay with relatives closer to the city. She declined to give her name, feeling she was ill-placed to speak because she was one of the lucky ones.<\/p>\n

\"AA burned out house on the road into Le Porge. Photograph: Naomi O’Leary \"AA firefighter holds a metal drip torch to create firebreak during a controlled fire operation in a forest in Le Porge. Photograph: Philippe Lopez\/AFP via Getty Images <\/p>\n

\u201cSo many houses burned \u2013 but not mine. We\u2019re still not allowed to go back. Its eight days now that we can\u2019t go in. So many people have lost their homes, unfortunately.\u201d<\/p>\n

There is fury among other Le Porge residents, who have told French media they feel they were \u201cabandoned\u201d so firefighters could save wealthier areas of the Biscay coast and have vowed they will seek justice in the courts.<\/p>\n

The village is currently shut to the public and a ghost town, save for the army of firefighters and volunteers. Many of them are local farmers who came on trucks and tractors to help wet the undergrowth, fell trees and create new firebreaks to save the region they love.<\/p>\n

The operations centre is in a community hall filled with tall stacks of water bottles and trestle beds where firefighters can catch some sleep after days of combating the flames.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0European wildfires in graphics: France and Spain battle blazes as another heatwave approachesOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

[\u00a0EU weather records broken as multiple countries battle to contain wildfiresOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

The surrounding roads, flanked by torched pine forest, are empty save for the sirens of emergency vehicles and the rumble of water trucks.<\/p>\n

Authorities sense they have the upper hand on the fire, though it continues to burn south of the village and weather conditions are challenging. A new heatwave has brought back the scorching heat that has left the landscape parched since it first arrived in May.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are optimistic, but we remain very vigilant,\u201d interior minister Laurent Nu\u00f1ez told French television on Thursday night.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe worst may be behind us.\u201d<\/p>\n

France was fighting 26 fires across the country in the most recent count, while Crete, Turkey<\/a> and Spain were also fighting severe blazes, as the European Union<\/a>\u2019s Emergency Response Co-ordination Centre warned the threat was moving east.<\/p>\n

Residents of several villages further from the smoking undergrowth have been allowed to return after being evacuated, though they have been told to keep their suitcases ready just in case, and the streets there are still almost empty.<\/p>\n

\"SallySally Galet in Le Haillan. Photograph: Naomi O’Leary <\/p>\n

\u201cIt feels a bit like a war zone,\u201d said Sally Galet, who recently returned to her home close to the village of Le Haillan and was glad to find the pharmacy had reopened. <\/p>\n

She had struggled to find a doctor for her 93-year-old mother in law, who became ill after their evacuation. <\/p>\n

\u201cOf course, all the labs are shut, it\u2019s a bit like Covid … everything\u2019s complicated,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Katy Olier, a florist who reopened her shop Cristalys on Thursday after spending several days sleeping in an evacuation centre, said she was still taking in what happened.<\/p>\n

\"KatyKaty Olier. Photograph: Naomi O’Leary <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s as if there was a war.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was so much smoke. We thought the fire was on our doorstep, all we knew was that we had to evacuate quickly, quickly,\u201d she recalled, showing the emergency message that arrived at 2.57am on Saturday, instructing her to leave immediately.<\/p>\n

\u201cDo you see those lilies? They all opened while I was away, they exploded open,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

\u201cI got a new delivery of flowers today, but there\u2019s no one here to buy them.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A wooden swing set stands untouched beside a burnt-out cottage in the village of Le Porge on the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":612399,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[41],"tags":[9,10,442,2219,13,14,2220,12364,6,11,12,15,16,5,383,7,8,385,1102,65,66,67],"class_list":["post-612398","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-world","tag-breaking-news","tag-breakingnews","tag-climate-change","tag-european-union","tag-featured-news","tag-featurednews","tag-france","tag-greece","tag-headlines","tag-latest-news","tag-latestnews","tag-main-news","tag-mainnews","tag-news","tag-spain","tag-top-stories","tag-topstories","tag-turkey","tag-weather-events","tag-world","tag-world-news","tag-worldnews"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/117011146408135078","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/612398","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=612398"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/612398\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/612399"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=612398"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=612398"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=612398"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}