Fire calling the shots': France's blaze pushes crews to the brink

Smoke rose over pine forests outside Bordeaux as firefighters rushed to stop fast-moving flames that have pushed operations toward exhaustion. In southwest France, more than 5,000 firefighters, military personnel, police officers and volunteers are battling a wildfire that has forced one of the largest evacuations in the country’s history and was about 15 kilometres from Bordeaux’s suburbs. Crews say the blaze is unpredictable, forming an enormous pyrocumulonimbus fire cloud that has not been seen in France, leaving them unable to control its path. With shifting fire fronts, teams are prioritizing villages and towns while waiting for rain. Paris firefighters responded to a new outbreak near the A63 as the highway was closed.