More than a week after France’s largest wildfire since 1949 first broke out, Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu said Saturday that the blazes ravaging the country are now under control.
Speaking to the weekly La Tribune Dimanche, Lecornu said the fires are broadly under control nationwide, and that the situation in the southwestern Gironde region has stabilized, echoing earlier comments from Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez.
The largest of the fires erupted in a pine forest near Bordeaux, following weeks of destructive heatwaves that dried out riverbeds and vegetation across France, extreme conditions scientists attribute to human-driven climate change.
In Gironde, near the winemaking capital, the fire tore through 42,000 hectares of coastal pine forest, an area larger than the city of Detroit, and destroyed roughly 240 homes. Some local residents believe the fire began accidentally last Wednesday, sparked by a brushwood-clearing machine.
Read more about this topic: George and Amal Clooney evacuate French home amid wildfires (with video)
Sophie Brocas, prefect of the Gironde region, struck a more cautious tone Saturday, warning that a fire being contained doesn’t mean it’s extinguished, and pointing to two remaining hot spots still causing concern. Still, most of the 224,000 people evacuated during the crisis have been allowed to return home, she said, while those in areas where the fire remains active will need to wait until it’s fully extinguished, according to Nuñez.
Lecornu made clear in his interview that authorities would respond appropriately should conditions change. He noted that a separate fire in the southeastern Var region remains under close watch.
Regional prefect Simon Babre said firefighters managed to halt the advance of a fast-moving blaze that broke out Friday, driven by strong winds that pushed the flames forward faster than a galloping horse. Babre described the situation as still extremely precarious, saying officials remain cautious because the fight isn’t over.
That fire was the latest in a string of blazes that have burned a combined 5,600 hectares in the Var region throughout July. Actor George Clooney, his wife Amal and their children were among those forced to evacuate their home in the area earlier in the week.
Read more about this topic: Bordeaux’s fire has stabilized and evacuees are returning home. Greece just lost three firefighters as the crisis spreads East (with video)
Rail service south of Bordeaux, disrupted since the previous weekend, finally resumed Saturday as another wave of summer travelers began or ended their holidays. The Bordeaux-area fire now ranks as the largest in France since a deadly 1949 forest fire in the same region that burned roughly 50,000 hectares. Lecornu encouraged people to continue vacationing in the region as a gesture of solidarity.
According to satellite data from the European Forest Fire Information System, the total area burned in France so far this year, 92,000 hectares, is the highest recorded in any year over the past two decades. Elsewhere in the country, a fire in the Fontainebleau forest near Paris destroyed roughly a tenth of the UNESCO-listed site in mid-July, part of a broader wave of wildfires across France this summer.
Nationwide, police have arrested 308 people in connection with the fires, with 33 currently held in custody.
