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France · major fire event · burning since 22 July
The Gironde fire: mass evacuations around Bordeaux
0communes still closed to their residents, after the last two reopened on 3 August
What happened
The fire that started at Saumos on 22 July is no longer spreading. The préfecture calls it "fixé", which is not the same as out: on 3 August it was still active along the coastal strip, with 1,500 firefighters working hot spots and fumeroles. The evacuations are over. Lège-Cap-Ferret and Le Porge, the last two communes closed to their own residents, were authorised to return on Monday 3 August, and the Le Ferron and Plein Soleil districts of Le Porge reopened that evening once a clearance team had lifted more than 400 wartime shells uncovered by the fire. Nine named campsites at Lège-Cap-Ferret have also been allowed to reopen. What has not changed is the countryside: Gironde is still under red forest-fire vigilance and the forest is still closed to walkers, cyclists and motor vehicles. It was one of the largest evacuations France has carried out in peacetime.
What it means if you're travelling
The evacuation is over and the main routes are back. The A63 between Bordeaux and Bayonne, shut for four days, reopened progressively from 30 July, and trains south of Bordeaux restarted on 1 August. Lège-Cap-Ferret and Le Porge were reopened to their residents on 3 August, so a booking in either is no longer behind a roadblock. Campsites and light dwellings in those two communes were deliberately left out of that decision, and only nine named campsites at Lège-Cap-Ferret have been cleared to reopen since, so ring your site and ask whether it has been authorised. A commune reopening does not mean your pitch has. Marcheprime station was reported closed while that commune was evacuated and we have not been able to confirm whether it is being served again, so check your own train on the morning you travel. A handful of small roads in the Le Porge and Lège sector are still barred, so trust the préfecture's own closure map over your satnav. Bordeaux and the rest of the department are working normally. While the red vigilance holds, forest and dune walking is closed to everyone and lighting anything outdoors is banned, barbecues and cigarettes included.
In depth: the Saumos fire
What happened at Saumos, and is the fire actually out?
The fire started at Saumos on the afternoon of 22 July and ran west through the pine forest towards the coast. By 23 July it had reached Lège-Cap-Ferret, a peninsula with a single road in and out; some residents and holidaymakers were taken off by boat to Arcachon and put on trains to Bordeaux. Over the following days the evacuation zone widened east towards the Bordeaux suburbs, and it became the largest evacuation France has ordered since the Second World War. The préfecture declared the fire "fixé" on 1 August. That word is doing precise work. Fixé means the fire is no longer spreading. It does not mean it is out, and the same communiqué named live hot spots on the Cap Ferret peninsula and in the dunes south of Lacanau. Nothing the préfecture has published since has replaced that word with maîtrisé or éteint. Its releases from 4 August onwards are about recovery rather than firefighting, and its communiqué of 8 August raising the department back to red vigilance does not mention the state of the Saumos fire at all. The cause is subject to a judicial investigation. Early enquiries pointed to an accidental start, and there are reports that it began during vegetation-clearing work. No civilian deaths have been reported. Many firefighters were treated for injuries, and aerial pictures of Le Porge showed whole rows of houses destroyed.
Which places can I get to, and which are still shut?
Everywhere is now open to residents. Lège-Cap-Ferret and Le Porge were the last two communes still closed, and the préfète authorised their return on Monday 3 August: Le Porge village and Lège bourg from 2pm, the rest of the Cap Ferret peninsula from 7pm. At Le Porge, the Camping de la Grigne and the Domaine résidentiel de la Jenny were authorised to take back the people evacuated from them at 10am on 5 August, and to take new holidaymakers from Saturday 8 August. Any other site in those two communes should be treated as shut until it tells you otherwise. Everywhere else on the basin had been let back in over the previous week. Mérignac, Eysines and Le Haillan outside the ring road went first on 28 July; Mios, Le Barp, Cestas, Saint-Jean-d'Illac, Martignas-sur-Jalle, Saint-Médard-en-Jalles, Saint-Aubin-de-Médoc, Salaunes and Sainte-Hélène on 30 July; Biganos, Lanton, Andernos-les-Bains and Audenge on 31 July; and Arès, Saumos, Le Temple, Marcheprime and the Lubec and La Pointe districts of Audenge on 1 August. Lacanau's campsites, tourist residences and holiday villages were cleared to take guests back on 30 July, and the commune said on 2 August that campsites and holiday residences could reopen. Arcachon itself was never evacuated. Beaches at the town centre, Le Moulleau and Pyla-sur-Mer were reported open on 31 July, with La Corniche closed and boating banned across much of the western basin while aircraft were drawing water. There is no published campsite-by-campsite list, so ring your own site.
Are the roads and the trains back?
Mostly, yes. SNCF stopped trains south and west of Bordeaux during the last week of July, checked the track, and restarted on 1 August: normal towards Toulouse, thinned services towards Arcachon, Hendaye and Tarbes that day, near-normal TER, and a return to normal from 2 August. Marcheprime station was reported still closed. Smaller forest roads in the Saumos, Le Porge and Le Temple sector stayed cut for clearance and for emergency and farm traffic, and satnavs have been routing people down them. Take the préfecture's map over your phone's, and do not use a road, track or cycle path that has been closed even if it looks passable.
How does this compare with the 2022 fires, and how long did recovery take then?
Anyone who was here in 2022 will remember Landiras and La Teste-de-Buch. This is bigger and it is in a different place. The 2022 fires burned in southern Gironde and at the southern end of the basin, well away from Bordeaux. The Saumos fire burned the coastal forest north of the basin, between Lacanau and Cap Ferret, and its smoke reached Bordeaux itself with air quality badly degraded. Towns and beaches came back fast.
What will the rest of this summer feel like on the coast?
Open, but restricted, and the restrictions have already been tightened once. Gironde went to black forest-fire vigilance on 24 July, came down to red on 31 July, came down again to orange from 4 August, and went back up to red, level 4 of 5, at midday on Saturday 8 August. The préfète Sophie Brocas gave the worsening forecast as the reason. Under the red order, in the forest-dominant communes and inside the exposed areas, lighting or carrying fire is banned, so is smoking and dropping anything still burning, and thermal and electric engines may not be used outdoors between 2pm and 10pm. Residents can still get into the exposed areas, the marked cycling itineraries and the EuroVelo routes stay open, and the equipped leisure sites and water-sports bases stay open outside those hours. Festive, sporting and cultural events are allowed, but only outside the massifs and outside a 200 metre band around them. A handful of bans apply across the whole department whatever the level: thermal brushcutting tools, burning green waste in the open, and fireworks or sky lanterns set off privately. The ground the fire actually burned was closed to everyone by the order of 4 August and no later communiqué has reopened it. On the coast itself, expect the smell of burnt pine on an onshore wind, ash on cars, HGV convoys of felled timber on the departmental roads for months, and stretches of blackened forest visible from the coast road for years. Bathing water and drinking water were both reported compliant on 7 August, with no beach closed for water quality and no fire-related alert recorded. The least obvious risk comes later: burned slopes and dune faces shed sand, soil and dead trees, and the first heavy autumn rain will bring runoff and falling timber where the canopy is dead. Where the forest is open to you, stay on marked paths and out of burned stands.
Live conditions for this region are on the France page and the Europe map, refreshed daily.
How this event has developed
: The heat has gone. The forest rules have not, and the préfecture has said nothing new. Météo-France's vigilance bulletin, issued at 6am on Sunday 16 August, puts no warning of any colour on Gironde for today or for Monday, so the orange canicule vigilance imposed on 12 August has ended even though the heat alert continues across the Rhône valley, the Alps and the Var. Nothing about the fire itself has moved on paper: the préfecture's August press-release index carries nothing later than the drought water-use decision of 11 August, so the last official statement on the forest-fire level remains the red vigilance of 8 August and the last on the fire itself remains "fixé", not out. The last restriction table anyone has published, DFCI Aquitaine's of 13 August, still shows red, so treat the 2pm to 10pm closure of the exposed forest as in force until an order lifts it. On the coast, La Vélodyssée still lists its cycle route between Lacanau-Océan and Lège-Cap-Ferret as closed until further notice, for falling trees and unbreathable air in the burnt sector, and sends riders inland by the Tour de la Gironde and the Canal des 2 Mers or on to the train at Biganos or Arcachon. That notice is dated 10 August at 2.45pm, so read it as nobody having reopened the path rather than as a check made this morning.
: The afternoon closure of the forest is confirmed as still in force. DFCI Aquitaine, the forest-defence body that publishes the access restrictions the prefectural orders set for the region's massifs, updated its table at 5.15pm on Thursday 13 August and still put Gironde at red, level 4 of 5, running from midday on 8 August. At that level people and leisure activities are barred from the exposed forest between 2pm and 10pm, sporting, leisure and cultural events are banned, and thermal and electric engines may not be used in those hours except by authorised public services and qualified staff. The table also records that in the sectors the fire burned, free access and all leisure activities stay banned outright until the dangerous timber has been cleared. Dordogne, the Landes and Lot-et-Garonne are all a step lower on orange, which is a reminder that the rule you are under changes at the department boundary and not at the edge of the trees. The préfecture updated its Saumos information hub the same day, adding a support booklet for residents.
: A second alert lands on top of the first. The préfète puts the department on orange canicule vigilance from midday on Wednesday 12 August, until further notice, with 39 to 41 degrees forecast for Thursday, 35 to 38 for Friday, and nights not dropping below 19 to 22 degrees. She told the mayors, put the emergency services and the approved civil security bodies on pre-alert, and convened the departmental heatwave cell that morning. The freephone line 0 800 06 66 66 carries the health advice. The forest-fire vigilance stays red through all of this, so the afternoon ban on outdoor engines and the ban on any use of fire in the exposed areas still apply.
: Gironde goes back up to red forest-fire vigilance, level 4 of 5, from midday, four days after coming down to orange. The préfète Sophie Brocas cites the worsening weather forecast. In the forest-dominant communes and inside the exposed areas, lighting or carrying fire is banned, along with smoking and dropping anything still burning, and thermal and electric engines are barred outdoors between 2pm and 10pm. Residents may still enter the exposed areas, the marked cycling itineraries and the EuroVelo routes stay open, and the equipped leisure and water-sports sites stay open outside those hours. Festive, sporting and cultural events are allowed only outside the massifs and outside a 200 metre band around them. Thermal brushcutting tools, open burning of green waste, and privately set fireworks and sky lanterns stay banned across the whole department. The communiqué says nothing about the state of the Saumos fire.
: Gironde comes down from red to orange forest-fire vigilance. The préfecture reopens the equipped leisure sites, the beaches and the water-sports bases, the EuroVelo 1 and EuroVelo 3 routes and the paths down to the beaches, allows activities supervised by qualified professionals, and lets residents and listed professional categories back into the massifs. General public access to the forest stays banned, along with camping and wild bivouac, outdoor engines between 2pm and 10pm, and any use of fire. The sectors the fire burned stay closed to everyone.
: Fire reaches Lège-Cap-Ferret. Le Porge, Saumos, Le Temple and Lège-Cap-Ferret are evacuated, some residents leaving the peninsula by boat to Arcachon.
: Fire starts at Saumos in the early afternoon and spreads west through the pine forest. A judicial investigation is opened; early enquiries point to an accidental cause.
What travellers are asking
Is Lacanau open?
Yes. Lacanau was never in the group of communes left closed to residents, its campsites, tourist residences and holiday villages were cleared to take guests back on 30 July, and the commune said on 2 August that campsites and holiday residences could reopen. What is not open is the burnt forest: the sectors the fire went through were closed to everyone by the order of 4 August and no later communiqué has reopened them, and hot spots were still being worked in the dunes south of the town on 1 August. The department went back up to red forest-fire vigilance at midday on 8 August, which bans lighting or carrying fire and smoking inside the exposed areas and bars engines outdoors between 2pm and 10pm.
Can I still go to Cap Ferret?
Yes, the peninsula reopened on Monday 3 August. The préfète authorised the return to Lège bourg from 2pm and to the rest of the Lège-Cap-Ferret peninsula from 7pm, which ended the evacuation. Two things still apply. Campsites and light dwellings were left out of that decision, and only nine sites have since been named as reopening, so check that yours is one of them before you drive down. Hot spots were still being worked along the coastal strip on 3 August, and the burnt forest is closed because weakened pines are still falling. Arcachon, on the other side of the basin, was never evacuated and its town-centre, Le Moulleau and Pyla-sur-Mer beaches were reported open on 31 July, though La Corniche was closed and boating was banned across much of the western basin.
Will my campsite refund me if I cancel?
It depends on whether the site is shut. Under the Tourism Code, a hotel, campsite or tourist residence that cannot provide the stay, either because it was damaged or because the préfecture has banned access to the area, must refund it, and these businesses carry fire insurance so refunds have generally been paid reasonably quickly. If your site is open and undamaged and you simply do not fancy it, there is no automatic right to a refund. Package bookings made through an agency are refunded in full if the accommodation has closed before departure; two separate bookings are not, so a running train service does not have to be refunded because your campsite shut. The government asked booking platforms on 27 July to be flexible, so ask even where you have no legal right.
Can I walk or cycle in the forest?
Not freely, and the rules got tighter again on 8 August. Gironde came down from red to orange on 4 August and went back up to red, level 4 of 5, at midday on Saturday 8 August. Under the red order the marked cycling itineraries and the EuroVelo routes stay open, along with the equipped leisure sites and the water-sports bases, but not between 2pm and 10pm, and residents may still get into the exposed areas. Lighting or carrying fire is banned there, so is smoking and dropping anything still burning, and thermal and electric engines may not be used outdoors in that afternoon and evening window. Thermal brushcutting tools, burning green waste in the open and privately set fireworks and sky lanterns are banned across the whole department. The ground the fire actually burned was closed to everyone by the order of 4 August and has not been reopened, because weakened pines are still coming down.
Is Bordeaux affected?
The city itself is operating normally and was not evacuated, though districts on the western edge outside the ring road at Mérignac, Eysines and Le Haillan were evacuated on 26 July and let back on 28 July. Smoke from the fire reached Bordeaux and air quality was badly degraded during the worst days. The préfecture said on 7 August that the regional health agency had resumed its air monitoring once access to the sites was restored and that no fire-related water quality alert had been recorded. That smoke is the clearest difference from the 2022 fires, which burned far enough south not to touch the city. Anyone with asthma or a heart condition should check air quality readings before a long day outdoors.
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