Boats and Local Ferries Pulled Over 2,000 Evacuees Off Cap Ferret
Local passenger ferries, private charters, and rescue vessels orchestrated a massive sea evacuation across the Bay of Arcachon, bringing more than 2,000 residents and holidaymakers to safety as aggressive wildfires cut off land routes from the Cap Ferret peninsula.
With the sole highway out of the area heavily congested and threatened by encroaching flames, local maritime authorities designated four coastal piers - including those at Lège-Cap Ferret - as emergency extraction points. A makeshift fleet of commercial shuttles and local craft shuttled continuous waves of evacuees across the bay to the Port of Arcachon, where medical teams and reception centers were set up on the quay.
Overall Evacuation Numbers
While waterborne shuttles extracted over 2,000 people by sea, French officials confirmed that approximately 40,000 people in total have been evacuated or are in the process of being evacuated from the Cap Ferret peninsula via land and sea routes combined. Across the wider region - including nearby Biscarrosse - total wildfire evacuations in south-west France have surpassed 43,000 people.
Responding to the spread of fires, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, the president of the community of Madrid, said it was: "The worst fire in the history of the region."
