Star Metro - Huge wildfire in southern France now under control

Around 2,000 firefighters were mobilised in France's southern Aude department to contain the blaze that started Tuesday. Thirteen people have been injured, two of them seriously.

But authorities said the most severe fire in France's Mediterranean region in at least 50 years has been contained.

"The fire is under control," said Lucie Roesch, secretary general of the Aude prefecture.

The announcement came after regional authorities in Spain said late Wednesday that a wildfire near the Mediterranean tourist town of Tarifa, which had prompted evacuations, had been stabilised.

Firefighters on the scene in the Aude department called it a "classic job but on an extraordinary scale", saying the day was spent dealing with the remaining active pockets of fire.

"The objective is to stabilise the fire" and halt its progress by the end of the day, said Christophe Magny, chief of the Aude department's firefighter unit.

The fire advanced much more slowly overnight to Thursday than at the start, when it engulfed around 1,000 hectares (2,500 acres) per hour, according to the authorities in the nearby city of Narbonne.

Weather conditions had become more favourable after two days of strong and changing winds that made the blaze's progress difficult to predict.

However the fire will not be "declared extinguished for several days", said Christian Pouget, prefect of the Aude department. "There is still a lot of work to be done."

A 65-year-old woman, who had refused to evacuate, was found dead in her scorched house, while 13 people were injured, 11 of them firefighters.

- 'Unprecedented catastrophe' -

The wildfire is a "catastrophe on an unprecedented scale", Prime Minister Francois Bayrou said Wednesday during a visit to the affected region.

"What is happening today is linked to global warming and linked to drought," Bayrou said.

The blaze has burned around 17,000 hectares of land.

In Saint-Laurent-de-la-Cabrerisse, the village hardest hit by the fire, thick smoke rose Thursday from the pine hills overlooking the vineyards where dry grass was ablaze, an AFP journalist said.

On the ground, a fire truck and several fire engines were circulating near the flames, with a water-bombing helicopter approaching the blaze.

"If we don't get help, we will not recover... It makes me sick, this vineyard, all those years of work, gone up in smoke in an hour," Fabien Vergnes, 52, told AFP on his property in Tournissan, a few kilometres from Saint-Laurent-de-la-Cabrerisse.

The fire is France's biggest so far in a summer that has already seen around 9,000 fires, mainly along the Mediterranean coast, according to the emergency management service.

An investigation has been opened into the cause, local officials said, but there were no firm leads so far.

The Aude department in particular has seen an increase in areas burned in recent years, aggravated by low rainfall and the uprooting of vineyards, which used to help slow down the advance of fires.

- Spanish blaze under control -

With Europe facing new August heatwaves, many areas are on alert for wildfires.

In Tarifa, fire crews secured areas near hotels and other tourist accommodations after getting the blaze under control, local officials said.

Antonio Sanz, interior minister for Andalusia's regional government, said on X that "the return of all evacuated people" had been authorised after the fire was "stabilised".

Spanish public broadcaster TVE reported that the fire started in a camper van at a beachside campsite, and spread quickly in strong winds.

About 1,550 people and 5,500 vehicles were evacuated from campsites, hotels and homes, Sanz said earlier.

Climate experts say that global warming is driving longer, more intense and more frequent heatwaves around the world, making for more favourable forest fire conditions.

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A.Bergeron--SMC