Wildfires in Europe

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1:19Hello, I'm James Reynolds. This time in the documentary from the BBC World Service. It's BBC Conversations, where we bring people together to share their experiences. This time we hear from victims of the wildfires that have swept through vast areas of Europe. As we record this programme on Friday lunchtime, wildfires continue to burn across the continent. Thousands of people have been evacuated on the Greek island of Crete, as well as in Western France, Spain, Portugal and Turkey. A blaze in central Spain has burned almost 80 ,000 hectares over the past week. It's now considered the largest recorded wildfire in Spanish history.

2:02With temperatures hitting more than 40 degrees Celsius in southwestern France, firefighters, planes and helicopters have been battling fires there. For our first conversation, then, we're going to hear from four people caught up in the disasters. Shortly, we'll hear from Muriel from L 'Ege Cap Ferrier in the Gironde region of France, near the city of Bordeaux. It's a popular tourist destination. She'll be joined by Robin, who's on holiday with his family. We brought them together with two guests in Spain. Guillermo owns a property in the area affected by fires west of Madrid, and Julian helped his family and others to escape the flames.

2:41My daughter, she was really scared, and she arrived with her friends. She's 13 years old, and she arrives and she starts to shout, telling me the fire is coming and has arrived here. And just minutes before, it was a car that crashed and caught on fire that it was in the village nearby that is called San Martin de Vada Iglesias. So at that moment, what I did is I get out from the house, I get my kids, my daughters. I also have a little business nearby that is called Lakeland. And I have clients also there. So I have to get my daughters and also the clients. In that moment, I had only a little car and I took them from the mountain where I live to near the water to have a safe place.

3:29So if we have to get out, we can get out with the boats at least. How many people were you driving with? I made like several trips with a car and I have a total of clients, let's say between kids and parents in Lakeland. I had more or less like night persons. And at the same time, I have my daughters. I have three in total, but I have two daughters in that moment. Plus, let's one, two, three, six more kids. So imagine with a little car to move all that people. In that moment, when it's the situation like this, you never think about nothing. You just say, let's go, let's do it and try to move. I think it's a human instinct not to get out quickly.

4:11So yes, we did it. Just like Julián, I have my own business and I was working. And then my friend was calling me and calling me. And I was like, you know, what the hell? I answered him. I was like, hey, I'm working. He's like, man, it's burning. It's burning. The whole thing is burning. And I have a piece of land very near to the explosion of the car that Julian mentioned. And I freaked out because that's my first home. So I was just in my mother's house. and immediately I called my ex-wife who was living in the house. She told me she was already on the way to Madrid, but that she had made some videos, that she was super scared.

4:52And for the next 48 hours, I received many calls from my friends and family, like, is your house okay? And I was like, look, my house, it's burned for sure, but at least nobody died. There are so many catastrophes like in Venezuela or in different places where people really, really struggle. Luckily, in Spain, we have wildfires. I mean, it's bad. I thought it's not so bad. And for sure, my house is burned. And I was very worried for my neighbor because she actually lives there all year round. And then I saw another friend's video on Instagram because his parents live very nearby us. and they showed that the house was fine, but they had a caravan and it was just like four irons, and everything was completely done.

5:45But two days ago, my neighbor told me that our places were saved. I think it didn't reach my place because there was a road. It cut the fire, so it didn't burn. But I was very surprised because another friend sent me an image of a very nearby place, and it was hell. Like, it was really, really burning. I'm stoked that my house is still standing. Thank you, Guillermo, and also to Julian as well. I want to cross the border from Spain into the southern part of France, where we have two guests waiting for us. The first is Muriel, how have the fires had an impact on you? I did a precautionary evacuation of the guests because I'm running a small concierge service and the fire was taking place about seven kilometres from my house.

6:41So as I had quite a lot of guests in several places, I advised them to take their stuff and car and to leave the peninsula where we live, actually. I stayed home and I was hoping that actually everything would be fine. And in the middle of the night, around 2 a.m., we've been awake by the police and the fire workers who told us to leave immediately because the fire was just 50 meters from the house. So we took our car, the dog, and we just left and drive where we could. The smoke was really thick and it was actually hard to breathe. So we are now hosted in Arcachon, just in front of the peninsula.

7:34and I just heard a few hours ago that the fire is actually wild and coming back on the house. So it's not good, not good at all. I don't know how it's going to end because people who decided to stay over there and not followed the fire workers' orders and the police order are just fighting at the can. And we are just feeling hopeless. Hopeless. That's the word, hopeless. Yeah. It's just that now I don't know if I've got any future, if I've got any house anymore. I don't know. I'm just waiting desperately to have some news that's the only thing I can do I'm so sorry Muriel, thank you very much for speaking to us just give you perhaps a little bit of a pause and we'll bring in Robin Robin, our guests have been from Spain and from France you're a holiday maker we were staying at a campsite at Lacan Ocean and I don't know about the others but when I'm on holiday I do switch off from the news and just get on with enjoying a nice holiday.

8:59I'm here with my wife and my two children, my two daughters who are nine and nearly 12. On the Friday afternoon, we could start to see the smoke was coming over us and it was this sort of dark grey and black. And my daughter put a drone up just above the tree line and that's when we could see these huge columns of fire coming up from the forest. It was sweeping across and then the smoke was going up and creating, it was like a huge disk above the whole area for miles and miles and miles. And then the sky turned black and grey, but near the fire, it was orange as well. And it came over us and we were swimming and all of a sudden the pool was getting filled up with ash.

9:42So you could see whole black pine needles. You could see bits of bark that were burnt. It blocked out the sun. And then it was almost like what you imagine to be from a film or something, the beginning of the end of the world. that's what it seemed like we were obviously quite concerned and the campsite said that there was a fire but there was nothing to worry about at that point but it would update us that we weren't being told to evacuate then on the Saturday it was this horrible smell in there sort of a burning smell people stopped coming and Muriel was running a tourist business as well and you could see already there was an impact and the message we were getting from the campsite was oh still come, still come, we're still open you might want to delay but you should still come and you can understand because it's people's livelihoods and it is important for all sorts of reasons to keep that going.

10:32But the place was empty, but it seemed quite calm. But then this morning we woke up and I get the smell was back. We were told we had to leave. We got an evacuation notice. We got the alert on the phone just about past nine or so. And by quarter past ten, that was us. We'd packed up with a motorhome. so we packed everything up in quickest time ever and we left two days early. We now don't have anywhere to stay but we're lucky in that we have a motor home so we're going to try and go to the next campsite a bit early but tonight we're going to stay in a car park. Listening to Muriel and Julianne there, especially I think you both said that you had businesses and your heart goes out to people who live there because it's the homes and the businesses and we're mobile and we can go.

11:20that hopefully we'll come back soon, maybe next year. But it's like the other participants on this call, it's just so much worse for them and my heart goes out to them. My feeling right now is that I don't know what to do. It's like, fortunately, I have my other job, and it's not my main business, the hotel. It's not a matter of the business. It's my place. It's where I live. It's where I have all my memories. it's really, really sad. It's really sad. It's really sad. And also at the same time, I think about the people. They've been fighting all their lives just to have a little house there. And also the little businesses, no?

12:05And the people that have been also fighting for their land, for their little businesses. And you know that the area that has been burned, yes, the area from Madrid, they call it La Sierra Pobre. You know, the poor, I don't know how you call it, the poor mountains or something. Yeah. So imagine right now what it is, you know. So it's a lot of people, the majority of the people that are there, really normal people. It's not a fun. I mean, it's really nice areas, a paradise, absolute paradise. But you have a lot of people that it's really people with not so much money, you know. So right now, I don't know what is going to happen with them.

12:45I really believe in Spanish solidarity. I don't believe so much in politicians. So to just make a call to all the potential clients and to the society that even that we are burned, we are still a potential paradise. That's more or less my idea. I think exactly the same as Julian. I mean, yesterday, French President Macron decided to come over to say that we were all united in that fight. But that's not true. They don't think that it is our life, our business. We did everything, actually, to welcome the guests, to provide the best for our guests. It is not only made of that. The people who live there all year are not rich people.

13:42They are fishermen. We have small businesses, and that small business is making Cap Ferré actually great. And it's a small paradise. Yes, it is. But that small paradise, we want to preserve it, and we want the tourism to come back. But with the social medias, actually all the fake news going around, it's not going to facilitate the future. Muriel and Robin in France, Julian and Guillermo in Spain. We recorded that conversation on Tuesday. We've since heard from both Muriel and Julian who are doing OK, but neither has yet been able to return to their home. Muriel mentioned the future. It's likely that heat waves, the ones we've been experiencing here in Europe, will become more common.

14:36Scientists say that climate change is making Europe the fastest warming continent on Earth. That means an increased likelihood of high summer temperatures, greater pressure on water supply and more intense wildfires. I'm James Reynolds. You're listening to the documentary from the BBC World Service.

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16:40As we mentioned, across Europe, thousands of people have been displaced from their homes. They need somewhere to stay. They need something to eat, something to drink. So for our next conversation, we return to the Gironde region of southwestern France to hear from volunteers helping those who've left their homes. Sophie owns bakeries in the area, making her the right person to deliver fresh bread to local fire brigades. Myrtle normally runs a clothing shop. Charlotte works in a bar. They, though, have been providing food for evacuees staying in a nearby sports hall. I asked Charlotte why she and the others decided to get involved.

17:16There were so many people who've been evacuated, like my parents, from our hometowns. And many people don't have any family to go to, nor no money to work for accommodation, for food. So I just think it's human of us. And we just felt like we had to help somehow. And by giving people food is a big step. Yeah, you're right, Charlotte. Because it's just human. A bit of empathy and being in their place and having people giving us food. It's just, yeah. Yes, a normal behavior, we can be at their place. We would like to be helped if we were in the same place. We were really happy to come back and reopen the bakeries to cook for everybody the little baguette that we dearly love in France.

18:11In our France. in the middle of all the food cooking and the delivery that you're all involved in do you have the chance to speak to the people you're helping to stop and have conversations uh yeah this morning i was at the gym hall so they were waiting for the meals there were i think 180 people waiting there there are some evacuees from north of the bay and they were really happy for fun. They were thanking us a lot for the meals. Grateful. Yeah, really grateful. And they were okay for this gym hall, at least. They have some psychologists, some infirmières, how do you say, nurses? Nurses, yeah.

18:54Nurses helping also. So there were a lot of people, but there are also some old people there and they need some help and they are just alone and not in They're in natural habitat, so it's a bit difficult for them, but it's okay because they have people around them and everyone is taking care of them, so it's really nice to see. Do we know how long those people will be in those gym halls for? No, we don't know yet. We can't say. It's impossible to know because the fire is the one that decides. The fire decides. Fire decides, so we just obey. I think it's not spending anymore, no? It's not spreading, but it's still burning.

19:37It's still burning, but it's calm down. And we have a few hot days coming. Not a heat wave really, but there are a few hot days, so I don't think it will help them now. So if we can do something to help, we can volunteer. Sing and dance for rain. Do rain dance. You all know this part of France so well. It's your home. Did you ever expect that you would be spending part of a summer delivering and cooking emergency food for people who've lost homes, watching, as Myrtle said, the flames on the horizon? No. No, absolutely not. It's a bit inimaginable. Even the first day, it was not thinkable that it would spread that way.

20:18Yeah. On a couple of days, we were just all under the shock how dramatic all of this and how fast, how fast it's happening. and trying to find solutions on solutions. The shops and businesses have their monthly turnovers going down by 50%. Seeing our families being evacuated, it's just everything's happening really fast. And like you said, we've been here for a really long time. We grew up here, friends, family, and just we would not have expected this to happen. Not at all. It already happened in 2022. Yeah. But it was different this time. It wasn't as big. Yeah, exactly. Not as long. We were affected already.

21:04So it's just coming again. Yeah. What do you girls do for a living? Were you able to leave your jobs and then come as volunteers? Yes, we still have to work because it's the big season for us. So we have a lot of tourists coming during the summer. and actually it's really calm here in Arcachon and we're not affected directly by the fires. So it's still, everyone is still living. I mean, everything is still the same. Every shop is opening every day and even some friends of mine that have shops and have been evacuated and Charlotte is also one of them. They are still coming to work and it's just something to think about anything else and to help as they can.

21:48And the streets are really, it's not crowded as it should be and yeah it's really empty and we are not working we hope that the tourists will not do the mix north and south bassin like in 2022 because the economy needs to be running at least if half of the territory is safe and that's great and we hope the Dundi Pila will be filled with people Yes, we need a lot of publicity. The economic impact is going to be wide for a few of us. So I don't know if you were coming in August in Arcachon, you still can come. I mean, the air quality is fine. Do you think people would really still? I know people must have made bookings, but when they see what's happened in the southwest of France, are you worried that those tourists might just think not this year not this year if they see what's on social media it's a straightaway panic so when they see that they just see panic and panic so i don't think they want to come but maybe if the state can communicate or spread the word out somehow uh might change their ideas but what's happening on social media what's been shared on social media is a bit terrifying so uh yeah when people book their holidays and see that they probably uh probably like you say it's not august this year but hopefully the media will be on our side after the fire is uh is down and that the security has come back and the air quality has come back and hopefully from the beginning of august we can have the tourists who have book coming and support the local businesses.

23:44I suppose a worry might be if there were big fires a few years ago and big fires this summer, then this might be something that happens for many summers. Is that something that you're having to get ready for now in your mind? I think the French state should already get ready by knowing how to deal with the situation because they were not prepared at all. So in our mind, we have to prepare, but we would like the state to also realize and try and put stuff in place. It'll be complicated if every summer we have to be worried about big fires and having to evacuate and see our towns where we grew up.

24:25That's going to be hard if we have to be prepared every year. Yes, and it can be that it's in different areas every year and then the whole of France will be impacted. So hopefully big decisions will be taken for this not to happen again. For these kinds of situations, yeah. I hope so. You're all volunteers working extremely hard, probably surviving on adrenaline and coffee. But at one point, what happens when you just are ready to crash? What happens then? Well, for my part, I have 50 employees who are very eager to come back. So it's not the moment to crash. It's the moment to organize and to reach your people.

25:10Because they need us to be strong, to be able to carry on. Because it has to carry on. No choice. Yeah, no choice. Exactly. That's how life is. And we just have to go on with it. We want to crush, yeah. But we can't. And we all stand together and that's nice. The community is really, I don't know. It helps. Yeah, exactly. It helps so much. Yeah. if we weren't all together. We are all together in this, exactly. Yeah, it's really helpful. You've all listened to each other's stories. Is there anything else that's on your mind for each other? Well, good luck. Yeah, good luck. And giving you a lot of love and support.

25:52Thank you. And to you, Moutique. And we'll carry on helping out until we run out of flour. Sophie Myrtle and Charlotte volunteering in southwestern France. Our thanks to them and to all of our guests this week for sharing their stories and experiences. We wish them all the best. I'm James Reynolds. You've been listening to the documentary from the BBC World Service. www.choiceology.org

26:50and how to make better ones to help avoid costly mistakes. Listen to choiceology at schwab.com slash podcast or wherever you listen.