A fast-moving wildfire, one of several blazes to erupt across heatwave-scorched southern Europe in recent days, has forced George and Amal Clooney to evacuate their multimillion-dollar estate near Brignoles in Provence, southeastern France.
The Oscar-winning actor, his human rights lawyer wife and their 9-year-old twins reportedly fled their property as a wildfire burning just north of the town scorched more than 20,000 acres.
The Clooneys confirmed in a letter to Brignoles Mayor Didier Brémond that they had evacuated the estate, which they bought in 2021 and now consider their primary home, according to People magazine.
“Dear Didier, At this point we have no idea whether our beautiful home makes it through this terrible moment,” the couple reportedly wrote.
“As we evacuate Brignoles we want to emphasize two things, first we hope you and the people of our city are safe and second that Amal and I are committed to making sure that whatever happens to our village, we are part of this community and we’ll be part of making it whole,” they added. “We love Brignoles and our friends who live there.”
The blaze is one of several wildfires that have erupted across southern Europe during a summer which has already seen multiple intense heatwaves.
Spain, Italy, Greece and Portugal have also been hit by fires.