27-07-2026
Faced with the violent fires currently affecting several French territories, and more particularly the Gironde and the Landes, the La Poste Group is fully mobilized to protect its employees and ensure, under the best possible conditions, the continuity of its essential missions.
In response to the fires in Gironde and Landes, La Poste Group is adapting its operations to protect its employees and maintain its essential services. Disruptions are affecting mail delivery and some other services, while support is being provided to affected customers and postal workers.
La Poste Group situation update as of July 27 at 4 p.m.
Following evacuation measures ordered by the prefectural authorities of Gironde and Landes, postal services are currently disrupted in several areas. Twenty-three post offices have been temporarily closed, including twenty in Gironde and three in Landes. Eleven mail and parcel distribution centers, including a Chronopost agency, have also had to cease operations. The Cestas sorting center, which handles mail for ten departments across the Southwest region, from Creuse to Charente, has been closed since Saturday evening. Even though a business continuity plan has been implemented with the Toulouse and Tours sorting centers, the situation may lead to delivery delays this week in the region.
More broadly, adjustments or suspensions of delivery routes had to be implemented in the affected areas, resulting locally in delays in the distribution of mail, newspapers and parcels, as well as temporarily limited access to certain postal services.
The La Poste Group is making every effort to inform its customers and gradually restore its activities as soon as safety conditions allow.
La Banque Postale is also working to ensure the continuity of essential banking services in the affected areas. In particular, it is supporting customers impacted by the fires. Together with its subsidiary CNP Assurances, it has also taken steps to ensure that policyholders with home insurance contracts benefit from an assistance program, including temporary accommodation and psychological support. Given the exceptional circumstances, the deadline for filing claims has been extended until August 31st.
The La Poste Group has taken all necessary steps to facilitate the evacuation of its employees. The 550 affected postal workers were able to find refuge with relatives or benefit from the support of the Group's social services to find shelter in facilities made available by the cities or by the Caisse des Dépôts in Bordeaux.
The fires, which are particularly affecting the Gironde and Landes regions, are disrupting the lives of thousands of residents and impacting many of our employees. In this exceptional situation, our primary responsibility is to protect and support our teams and partners, paying close attention to their health and safety. We are also fully committed to maintaining our essential services to the communities and our customers. Finally, I would like to commend the exemplary dedication of all the teams involved and our volunteer postal workers who are also firefighters, working alongside the emergency services.
Marie-Ange Debon
Chairwoman and CEO of La Poste Group
Operational adjustments to maintain essential services
In areas that have been evacuated or have become temporarily inaccessible, the postal items in question are being kept in La Poste's secure logistics circuits and will be distributed as soon as conditions allow.
In non-evacuated territories, the Group is adapting its organization to ensure the continuity of its missions, including the distribution of mail, press and parcels, social monitoring services and services for vulnerable people, the delivery of medicines, meal delivery and digital services.
Protecting postal workers is a top priority
From the first alerts, La Poste Group activated its crisis management procedures in close collaboration with the prefectures, emergency services, local authorities, and health officials. To date, all affected postal workers are safe. Personalized support measures have been put in place for evacuated employees.
A collective mobilization in the face of an exceptional situation
More than 400 postal workers are volunteer firefighters. Some are currently deployed in the field alongside emergency services to combat the spread of fires. This mobilization is part of the partnership agreement signed between the La Poste Group and the Ministry of the Interior and Overseas Territories and the Directorate General for Civil Security and Crisis Management.
The La Poste Group will continue to adapt its system as the situation evolves, in conjunction with the relevant authorities, in order to ensure the safety of its employees, customers and partners across all affected territories.