A British father and his daughter fled the wildfires raging in France by escaping on a boat in a “mini-Dunkirk” as flames threatened to cut off a popular tourist area.
Ben Sturnham, 50, and his eight-year-old daughter Allegra were on a week-long holiday at the Cap Ferret peninsula, 40 miles west of Bordeaux, when blazes ripped through the surrounding area.
As the flames grew nearer, ash rained down on the luxury destination with French authorities giving the order for a total evacuation of the area on the Atlantic coast.
On Friday morning, they managed to board a last-minute private taxi boat across the bay after fire left smoke billowing “like a mushroom cloud” , said Mr Sturnham, who lives in London and Bristol.
Nearly 200,000 people have been forced to flee homes and holiday accommodation in south-west France as wildfires rip through the region.
“There were two fires, one at the top of the peninsula and one on the other side, just raging constantly for the last two days we were there,” Mr Sturnham told The i Paper.
Mr Sturnham and his daughter were able to board a boat that carried them across the bay on Friday morning (Photo: Ben Sturnham)
“And then this – it was like a mushroom cloud. It didn’t look sinister, we thought it was rain.
“And then this cloud on Wednesday to Thursday grew significantly, and then we realised clearly it was smoke.
“On Thursday, Friday, sitting in Cap Ferret, right on the tip of the peninsula, in bars and restaurants, there was ash coming down out of the sky. People were really concerned because it was shocking.”
Around 3am on Friday morning, he was woken by his friend they were staying with who said an evacuation order had been issued.
In tinder-box conditions, the fast-moving blaze in the Gironde region had breached a defensive containment line established by firefighters around 1am.
A volunteer directs holidaymakers from Lège-Cap-Ferret upon their arrival in Arcachon by boat during the evacuation operation of the entire Cap-Ferret peninsula (Photo: Romain Perrocheau/AFP)
French interior minister Laurent Nuñez said 40,000 people were being evacuated from Cap Ferret as 800 firefighters battled the blaze just to the north.
But with no taxis available and the road out “absolutely jammed” the only route out was by boarding a boat and crossing the bay to the town of Arcachon so they could reach the airport to catch their flight home later that day.
Mr Sturnham and his friend, who was with his five-year-old child, left the house and headed to the pier where he had paid for a private taxi boat.
“There was a real fear – not panic, but there was a real sense of concern. No boats, people queuing up with suitcases,” said Mr Sturnham.
“The whole of Cap Ferret was packing up at three, four in the morning. You could see people rushing to their cars, putting suitcases in and trying to get out.”
At the pier, there was “massive queuing” as people scrambled to get away from Cap Ferret, which is known as the French Hamptons, the upscale resort on the US East Cost.
Holidaymakers on the beach of Moutchic on the shore of Lake Lacanau as clouds of smoke rise into the sky from the Gironde wildfire (Photo: Maximilien Lamy/AFP)
“My boat was going first, so I had to speak to my French contact to say, ‘Look, I’ve got a taxi boat with two suitcases and a child. I’m English. I don’t speak French. I don’t want everyone to think that I’m suddenly jumping a queue.’
“So he walked me up and said in French, ‘Don’t panic. This is mon ami, my friend. He has a private boat for 6.30am’.
“Even walking to the front of the queue, I felt bad. You get a sense that other people were getting twitchy. You couldn’t see the flames, but there was just real anxiety in terms of ‘shit, we’ve got to get across the other side’.
“We somehow by the skin of our teeth got out just in time. I’ve never experienced anything like it.”
His friend managed to drive his family up the one road out of Cap Ferret, but the journey took three hours.
‘Acrid smoke’ in Bordeaux as British residents join thousands fleeing
Graham White, president of the British Bordeaux Community, says several members of the expat group have been forced to flee their homes as the wildfires rage.
On Saturday morning, he could see smoke from the fires from his city centre home in Bordeaux, where authorities gave the order to evacuate suburbs.
Huge clouds of smoke fill the sky as wildfires rage close to Bordeaux (Photo: Maximilen Lamy/AFP)
He had started packing bags in case he is also told to leave his home.
“Until six o’clock last night, in terms of where we live, we heard no effects of the fire whatsoever, and then at six o’clock the acrid smoke started to come across,” he told The i Paper.
“I think everybody else around us just closed up shop. Everything, all windows closed, doors closed, and it’s been like that ever since.”
Friends of his were evacuated on Friday night from Biscarrosse, about 50 miles from Bordeaux.
Mr Sturnham paid €250 for the boat to make a 12-minute journey across the water to Arcachon, where he had a taxi booked to take them to Bordeaux airport, which cost another €200 and returned to UK on Friday after flying from France.
“This thing certainly wasn’t a luxury speedboat, it was like a little tug-boat. It was just me and Allegra on there,” he said.
“She was saying, ‘Daddy, this is amazing’, at 6 o’clock in the morning, buzzing across the Channel. But then I was looking at the fire raging, and the sky was gray.
“It was a mini-Dunkirk. Cap Ferret is not isolated. But one road in, one road out.
“I think that’s why the French authorities were probably so concerned because if that fire started coming down and into the peninsula, you’ve got nowhere to go. It could have been an absolute catastrophe.”