People in France’s fire-hit southwest were “coming up for air”, officials said Friday, after firefighters managed to stabilise a massive blaze that had burned for nine days.<\/p>\n
Most of the 220,000 people who had been evacuated from the flames, which at one stage seemed to be heading for the city of Bordeaux, have now been allowed home.<\/p>\n
“The crisis isn’t over, the fire isn’t under control yet, but we’re making progress,” said Sophie Brocas, prefect of the southwestern Gironde region. “We’re coming up for air.”<\/p>\n
But another blaze in the southeastern Var region flared up and was threatening villages roughly 80 kilometres (50 miles) northeast of Marseille, forcing the evacuation of 2,500 people.<\/p>\n
Strong winds were fanning the flames the Var fire, which spread rapidly and burnt 1,000 hectares in just a few hours, officials said.<\/p>\n
“The fire is spreading, fuelled by the mistral wind,” senior provincial official Simon Babre told AFP.<\/p>\n
Human-caused climate change has made the extreme conditions that are fuelling infernos in western Europe twice as likely than in a pre-industrial climate in France, scientists said this week.<\/p>\n
People in Var were jolted into the reality that their countrymen hundreds of miles to the west have been living through for the past week.<\/p>\n
Emma Leray, who lives in the fire-hit village of Correns, said she saw her “garden in flames”.<\/p>\n
“It was panic. We didn’t get any warning. We just had time to grab our two cats and flee by car… picking up a neighbour along the way,” she recalled.<\/p>\n
“Our neighbours, who have vineyards, were trying to put out the flames with branches and a fire extinguisher we gave them.”<\/p>\n
Hundreds of firefighters have been drafted in, along with planes and helicopters.<\/p>\n
Temperatures have reached 38C in Var, which is under an orange heat wave alert until Saturday midday.<\/p>\n
Fuel transport and gas cooker lighters are banned throughout the region until Monday morning.<\/p>\n
Across the country in the Gironde region, locals and officials were coming to terms with a fire that had ravaged 42,000 hectares.<\/p>\n
The authorities said the blaze had been stabilised thanks to “favourable” overnight conditions.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Firefighters would now need to clear woodland undergrowth and tackle the fire’s edges towards the dunes.<\/p>\n
At least 200 homes were destroyed and two firemen killed in the fires.<\/p>\n
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