Two firefighters killed fighting inferno at Bordeaux airport

Flights were grounded at France’s Bordeaux–Mérignac Airport after a huge fire nearby killed two firefighters.

The fire erupted from a grassy,wooded area on Avenue Roland Garros,close to the airport’s car park,at around 2.30pm on Tuesday.

Huge plumes of smoke spread across the sky as one hectare of land went up in flames.

Two firefighters died within ‘minutes’ of attempting to put out the blaze,Marc Vermeulen,director of the Gironde departmental fire and rescue service (SDIS),told French news outlet Le Monde.

Smoke billows from an outbuilding close to the runway at Bordeaux

They were aboard a tanker truck when they were ‘confronted with a very violent’ fire that ‘trapped’ them in a ‘very dense’ pine forest.

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Start your day informed with Metro's News Updates newsletter or get Breaking News alerts the moment it happens.The flames were as high as 30 metres,Vermeulen added.‘Accompanied by swirling winds,the situation was very unfavourable,’ he said.French president Emmanuel Macron wrote X: ‘I offer my condolences,gratitude and support of the nation to their families,loved ones and the firefighters of France.’

‘It’s burning like crazy’

Video posted to social media showed passengers disembarking from an easyJet flight as a column of thick grey smoke loomed behind them.🔴 Trafic très perturbé à l’aéroport de Bordeaux Merignac en raison d’un important incendie. pic.twitter.com/m5DnBNAUid— Mapendano Muroha (@MapendanoMuroha) July 21,2026A passenger filmed the inferno from a bus passing by as helicopters darted in and out of the smoke.‘It’s burning like crazy in Merignac,’ the passenger said.Putain ça crame de fou à Merignac pic.twitter.com/XIQkj2007H— sila (@silaj__) July 21,2026pic.twitter.com/08ufqo71nN— Manon 🦦 (@manon_qrs) July 21,2026Several flights scheduled to arrive at Bordeaux-Mérignac airport have been delayed while others were stopped from taking off.The airport’s marketing and communication manager,Sophie Vergnères,told AFP: ‘It was indeed impressive.‘From a distance,it was quite impressive.’Some 100 firefighters,backed by specialist aircraft,are reported to be still fighting the blaze.The cause of the fire,which is no longer spreading,is unclear,according to the Association for the Prevention and Reporting of Forest Fires.Gironde is one of a raft of French departments,akin to counties,that have been ravaged by wildfires in recent days.The historic Fontainebleau forest was torn by wildfires last week (Picture: AP Photo/Emma Da Silva)The second-highest alert for forest fires,red,is in effect in Gironde amid a spell of hot,dry weather.People cannot start campfires or use electric engines in forests under the warning,with almost all recreational activities banned from 2pm to 10pm.A wildfire swept through towns on France’s Mediterranean coast near Frejus on Sunday,threatening homes and forcing the evacuation of several hamlets as strong winds and drought conditions fueled its rapid spread,local authorities said.A wildfire burns in Pouzols-Minervois near Narbonne,earlier this month (Picture: Reuters/Alexandre Dimou)‘The fire spread extremely quickly in the context of this heatwave and extreme drought,’ local prefect Simon Babre told BFM TV.The blaze had scorched about 180 hectares by Sunday evening,adding to the some 42,000 hectares already destroyed by flames by mid-July.Experts told Metro that the record temperatures that baked Western Europe for over a week in late June would worsen the risk of wildfires,given the outlook for sustained high temperatures,very low humidity and dry vegetation.Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at .For more stories like this,check our news page.