Macron calls crisis meeting as wildfires threaten Bordeaux and heatwave looms

Macron calls crisis meeting as wildfires threaten Bordeaux and heatwave loomsImage source, EPAByChris Graham and Yang TianPublished1 hour agoFrench President Emmanuel Macron will a hold a crisis cabinet meeting on Monday as wildfires closed in on the south-western city of Bordeaux.Another heatwave is set to complicate efforts to tackle the expanding blaze, which is about 15km (nine miles) from Bordeaux, mayor Thomas Cazenave said. Earlier he said there were no plans to evacuate the population of about 850,000.Wildfires have raged across Europe over the past week, primarily in France and Spain, where more than 330,000 people have been evacuated across both countries.Macron said on Saturday that France would "rebuild" and his government would "be there for as long as is needed".Tens of thousands of people have already been evacuated from Bordeaux's surrounding region, with France's Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez saying the situation remained "very unfavourable" and the fire was "moving erratically" towards the city.Weather forecasts for the country warned that temperatures could spike to 40C in some areas from Tuesday.Image source, Lorena Sopena Lopez/Anadolu via Getty ImageFrance's main fire in the Gironde region has caused an unprecedented "pyrocumulonimbus" - a giant fire thunderstorm fuelled by its own winds and lightning, said the National Firefighters Federation of France (FNSPF). "We don't know how the blaze will spread, the fire front is constantly shifting. We cannot fight it directly," said spokesman Eric Brocardi."It's a David-versus-Goliath scenario." He added that to control the blaze, it would need to rain "heavily for three days" or require firefighters steering it towards a place where it can die down on its own, like the sea.The wildfires have badly affected France. About 42,000 hectares has burnt in the south-west, in one of the largest forest fi...