France's largest wildfire in decades brought under control
French authorities say the largest wildfire in decades near Bordeaux is now under control. Most of the more than 220,000 evacuated residents have returned home.
The largest wildfire in southern France in recent decades is no longer spreading. According to Nunjess, the blaze is under control, although it is still active in some places. France has been battling wildfires for weeks after several heatwaves dried up riverbeds and vegetation.
In the Gironde region near Bordeaux, the fire has devastated 42,000 hectares of pine forest along the Atlantic coast and destroyed around 240 homes. Residents say the fire was accidentally started last Wednesday by a scrub-clearing machine from which a spark flew.
Sophie Brocas, the prefect of Gironde, said on Friday evening that the region 'can finally breathe' after more than a week of fighting the fire. Most of the 220,000 people evacuated from the fire zone have already returned home.
The wildfire near Bordeaux is the largest in France since 1949, when a fire in the same region destroyed about 50,000 hectares. According to satellite data from the European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS), the total area burned in France so far this year — 92,000 hectares — is the largest recorded in any year over the past two decades.
