France’s largest blaze in decades has scorched 17,000 hectares • FRANCE 24 English

France’s largest blaze in decades has scorched 17,000 hectares • FRANCE 24 English

Temperature warnings have been issued in 17 departments. This Friday, some places will see temperatures as high as 39 degrees C. Now, officials warned that everyone should be careful, but the risk is greatest to children, the elderly, and people suffering from chronic diseases. Scientists say human induced climate change is making extreme weather like this more intense and more frequent. That hot weather has made it difficult for firefighters in the southern department of ode. But they say they at the massive wildfire there is finally contained. The blaze, which is larger than Paris, killed at least one person and injured more than a dozen. Around 2,000 firefighters have been working to extinguish the blaze. We can speak to our reporter Caris Garland standing by now. Hello to you, Caris. Tell us a little bit about where you are at the moment. So, I’m standing in the middle of the Kier forest. On the way here, we were able to drive through an area normally closed off to the public and and journalists. Uh, and we were able to see the extent, the sheer amplitude of this disaster, blackened hills and valleys, uh, power lines too as completely snapped off or still smoldering even uh, with the odd pocket of vineyards still seemingly uh, intact. Then we drove to this uh village called Durban Kier. It was basically cut off from the rest of the world. Uh after that fire struck, flames literally reached the very edge of the village where the welcome sign uh was. Uh just to the next just to the right of it was the blackened bush land and and and the bright red welcome sign to the village. uh firefighters focused their efforts particularly on this area because there was an ag there is an aged care home there where uh if they were forced to evacuate that would have been very difficult for these people uh who are in vulnerable or delicate states. So firefighters really paid more attention to this area. The network there for example has now been restored. But also on the way to this village we passed through another one where we saw how uh people there are organizing themselves and trying to serve as the link between uh other residents and security uh officials uh so that they know what information to pass on using walkie-talkies for example in the absence of of uh phone lines. So this is how people are organizing here with uh the the sheer destruction uh still uh being come coming to light. Yeah. And what can you tell us about firefighters efforts to extinguish the blaze? So after containing the blaze on Thursday evening, uh firefighters are now working to secure, you know, prevent any other outbreaks re reigniting uh flames. is they’re putting those out very quickly and they’ll focus their efforts now on uh bringing this fire under control. So they made progress notably using drones with GPS capabilities and and cameras so that they could identify the most important areas and focus all their resources uh on them. Uh but as you mentioned uh France, this area in particular is going to uh going to be in a heat wave by the weekend with temperatures reaching maximums of 40 degrees in some areas. So while the weather uh this uh Friday morning has been favorable with a 60% humidity and a little bit of rain even uh people are still on watch uh that you can see that there are still areas smoldering uh behind me. So firefighters are remaining vigilant. There are still just under 2,000 firefighters on the ground working to put this out and authorities say it could take weeks or or months even to extinguish everything completely. All right, Caris, thank you very much. Carris Garland reporting.

The wildfire in southern France has been brought under control but remains a threat, having consumed 17,000 hectares. As Carys Garland reports, the fire has caused devastation to villages in the Aude department.
#France #wildfire #blaze

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