Heatwave and wildfire alerts, power cuts in Finistère: France swelters

A historic heatwave continues to grip France. On Wednesday 24 June, residents woke to record temperatures once again: 29°C in La Rochelle, 26°C in Dieppe and 27°C in Paris — all by 5am. Fifty-eight départements are on red alert and 31 on orange alert.Maximum temperatures remain exceptionally high across most of the western half of the country. Météo-France has warned that further records are likely to fall, "including all-time records for any month." While daytime highs are changing little, overnight minimums continue to rise.Wildfire riskThe combination of extreme heat and low humidity is creating dangerous conditions for wildfires, with 35 départements placed on heightened alert.The conditions "significantly worsen the risk of outbreaks and the spread of forest and vegetation fires compared with usual summer conditions," Météo-France said, adding that fire risk "may be very high in some areas."Lot-et-Garonne is already bearing the brunt: two separate fire fronts have broken out within a few kilometres of each other. A fire engine belonging to SDIS 47 was destroyed by the flames and one firefighter was slightly injured, according to the prefecture, which said 180 firefighters and 80 vehicles had been deployed, backed by two Canadair aircraft and three Dash planes.68,000 households without powerThe heat is also taking a toll on infrastructure. On Tuesday evening, a fault at an RTE grid transformer in Ergué-Gabéric, near Quimper, cut electricity to around 106,000 customers at the height of the outage, the prefecture said.Two explosions were heard in the town and the surrounding area was evacuated as a precaution."The cause of the incident was accidental and linked to the intense heat currently being experienced. No one was injured," the prefecture said in a statement.Technical teams are working to restore supply, the regional president said on social media, but around 68,000 households remain without power. RTE has said reconnections will begin at the earliest by the end of Wednesday 24 June, with priority given to healthcare facilities and other sensitive sites."For technical reasons, RTE will not be able to reconnect the affected households during the course of the day; reconnections will take place, at the earliest, at the end of the day on 24 June. Priority is being given to restoring power to healthcare facilities and sensitive sites."