Inside a hastily assembled refuge in Bordeaux, where camp beds line the floor and food supplies are piled high, thousands of exhausted residents and holidaymakers are trying to steady themselves after escaping the wildfires tearing across southwest France.
Some sit with the fear of not knowing whether their homes are still standing. Others are facing the sudden, jarring end of holidays that only hours earlier had seemed untouched by danger.
For Nuala Kelly, a 75-year-old tourist from Ireland, the scale of the crisis was unlike anything she had experienced.
“Never, never, never, never, never, and I’ve travelled all over the world and been in all sorts of situations,” she told AFP at Bordeaux’s vast exhibition centre now housing thousands of people displaced by the wildfires.
Watch: Thousands gather at evacuation centre in Bordeaux
Masks are being handed out to those who ask for them. Smoke continues to drift through the area, though breathing is easier than it was the night before, when the sharp, bitter smell of burning reached across Bordeaux.
For days, hundreds of firefighters have been confronting fast-moving fires in a corner of southwest France better known for its sand dunes, pine forests, and oyster shacks.
The advancing flames have pushed authorities to move tens of thousands of people out of the upmarket Cap Ferret peninsula and nearby villages, in what has become one of the largest evacuation efforts ever carried out in France.
Fast-moving fires have pushed authorities to evacuate tens of thousands of people
Many of those sheltering in Bordeaux came through the night from the Arcachon Bay area and from towns near Bordeaux now under threat from the fires.
‘Like a volcano about to erupt’
Olivier Stewart, 38, left Merignac with his wife and young children after an emergency alert instructed them to go.
“The children are the most stressed. They think the fire is going to burn down the house, but we’re coping,” he said.
Outside, children kick footballs and play badminton, carving out small distractions in the middle of uncertainty.
Frederic Tavitian, a 70-year-old retiree whose home is around 50km away, said traffic meant the journey to the shelter took about four hours.
“At 3pm, we were told, ‘You have to evacuate.’ We saw columns of smoke, like a volcano about to erupt. So we left,” said Mr Tavitian, sitting on his camp bed with a guitar in hand.
He said the unbroken noise inside the shelter had left him drained and unable to sleep.
“It’s really tough. That’s the way it is. We just have to live with it,” he said.
Fire seen burning in the distance as smoke billows into the sky from the shore near France’s Lege-Cap-Ferret (Image: Clément Hochedez / @otche_de_la_noche)
Behind him, evacuees eat, queue for coffee, or try to find rest on air mattresses and sleeping mats.
Some have arrived with cats and dogs, prompting organisers to set out pet food and cat litter alongside other emergency supplies.
Several buses have also been arranged to bring elderly people to safety.
Across Bordeaux, local residents have begun offering whatever help they can.
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David Duval, 55, said he was ready to take in a family.
“I have a spare room available,” he said.
“It breaks my heart when I see all these people in distress. We have to think about what each of us can do,” said the engineer, who lives nearby.
A first-aid station is operating inside the centre, with a doctor present to assist those needing care.
“I’m identifying people’s needs, especially those of the children, and reminding them about the signs of dehydration,” said Marie Decroix as she moved among the families, jotting down notes.
