It can get much worse.
For seven days and nights, French firefighters have been battling the Gironde wildfire and are only now getting a measure of success, right as another heatwave is about to hit the Bordeaux region.
The massive Gironde wildfire has burned some 42,000 hectares and remains stabilized but not fully contained.
But a new deadly challenge may be about to enter this ‘apocalyptic’ fire season: the blaze is closing in on missile and rocket factories in France – facilities that store explosive materials.
The Telegraph reported:
“At least seven sites holding hazardous substances lie within 12 miles of the current blaze, France’s worst wildfires in living memory.
Saint-Médard-en-Jalles, an evacuated commune, is home to a 435-hectare facility which produces propellants for Ariane rockets and strategic missiles. Another facility in nearby Sainte-Hélène produces ammonium perchlorate, a powerful explosive agent.
ArianeGroup, the aerospace company which operates the site, said the facilities had been evacuated with ‘all necessary measures’ taken to secure them.
Sébastien Lecornu, the French prime minister, said protective measures had been deployed around the sites ‘given the nature of the products stored there’, Le Monde reported.”
Aerial view of the Gironde fire southeast of Bordeaux, France shot from a Canadair on a drop run. The scale is hard to process.
🎥 IG:josmokehouse https://t.co/8ciZtft8tU pic.twitter.com/7GbhysycDL— FireMap.live 🔥🌎 (@disaster_db) July 26, 2026
Defense News reported:
“Satellite data on Tuesday morning showed wildfires remained active less than 9 kilometers (5.6 miles) west of Dassault’s Martignas site, which is the wing assembly plant for the Rafale jet, before final assembly of the aircraft in Mérignac.
NASA’s Fire Information for Resource Management System showed fires and hot spots west of Bordeaux were significantly reduced as of 9 o’clock in the morning local time, though authorities have warned that a new wave of hot weather with a peak on Wednesday, combined with near-record drought conditions, could cause fire activity to pick up again.
[…] Satellite data as of Tuesday morning showed active wildfires around 12 kilometers west of ArianeGroup’s Candale site, where the propulsion units of the M51 missile stages are integrated and assembled, around 13 kilometers from the site of Saint-Médard-en-Jalles where the missile is fueled, and some 16 kilometers of the Le Haillan site that produces the company’s solid-propulsion systems.”
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