Aug 01 (v7n) - France's most severe wildfire since 1949 has been brought under control, Interior Minister Laurent Nunez announced Saturday, more than a week after the blaze erupted in a pine forest near Bordeaux.
"The fire is under control, it's no longer progressing," Nunez said, though he cautioned that flames were still active in certain areas.
France has been grappling with wildfires for weeks amid a series of deadly heatwaves that have dried up rivers and vegetation—extreme weather events scientists have linked to climate change.
In the Gironde region near Bordeaux, the inferno consumed 42,000 hectares (104,000 acres) of pine forest along the Atlantic coast—an area larger than the city of Detroit—and destroyed roughly 240 homes. Residents have suggested that a brushwood-clearing machine accidentally sparked the fire with a spark on Wednesday last week.
Sophie Brocas, prefect of Gironde, said Friday evening that the region was "coming up for air" after more than a week of relentless efforts by water-bombing aircraft, firefighters, and volunteers. Most of the 220,000 evacuees have since returned home, though Nunez noted some would have to wait until active areas are fully extinguished.
In southeastern France, firefighters also managed to halt the advance of a fast-moving blaze that started Friday in the Var region, fanned by strong winds. Regional prefect Simon Babre reported no further progression by Saturday morning.
That fire was one of several that have burned 5,600 hectares in Var this month, including one that forced Hollywood star George Clooney, his wife Amal, and their children to flee their home earlier this week.
Elsewhere, a mid-July fire in the Fontainebleau forest near Paris destroyed a tenth of the UNESCO-listed site.
The Bordeaux-area fire is the largest nationwide since a deadly 1949 blaze in the same region, which scorched around 50,000 hectares. According to satellite data from the European Forest Fire Information System, France has recorded 92,000 hectares burned so far this year—the highest annual total in two decades.
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