The biggest wildfire in France for 75 years which devastated an area of southern France the size of Paris could “reignite at any time”, officials warned.
The blaze, which killed a woman and injured 18 others, scorched through 39,537 acres of forest and villages after it erupted on Tuesday afternoon in the village of Ribaute in the Aude region.
The largest to rip through the landscape since 1949, it destroyed 36 houses, damaged 20 others, and forced around 2,000 residents and tourists to flee.
Regional authorities said the fire had been brought under control after the spread slowed down but warned the inferno could erupt again at any point and firefighters are continuing to work at the scene.
“The battle isn’t over yet, the fire could reignite with greater force,” Outre-mer prefect Christian Pouget warned.
At the height of the crisis, 5,000 homes lost power, and as of Thursday evening, around 1,500 homes were still without electricity, authorities said.
Residents have been urged not to return home while operations continue, with 17 temporary accommodation sites opened up.
“We don’t have water, internet and electricity anymore. We have nothing. It’s the apocalypse,” said resident and farmer Alain Reneau, who lives in Saint-Laurent-de-la-Cabrerisse.
Thousands of firefighters rushed to put out the fire, which environment Minister Agnes Pannier-Runacher said was caused by climate change.
“Never in my life (have I seen) fires like this,” 77-year-old retiree Simon Gomez said in Saint-Laurent-de-la-Cabrerisse.
Smoke from the fires and large areas of burnt land could be seen from satellite images on Thursday, highlighting the scale of the devastation across the region.
Jacques Piraud, mayor of the village of Jonquières, where several houses burned down, told Le Monde that around 80 per cent of the village was burnt. “It’s black, the trees are completely charred,” he said.
France’s weather office has warned of a new heatwave with temperatures of up to 40C starting in other parts of southern France on Friday and due to last several days.
Danger remains high across the Mediterranean coast with temperatures expecting to reach 35C in inland Mediterranean areas.
“In the Aude region, the risk of fire spreading remains very real, although less severe than on Tuesday,” Meteo France said, adding that national temperatures could peak at the beginning of the week.
President Emmanuel Macron said on X that “all the nation’s resources were mobilised”, while prime minister François Bayrou said the fire was a “catastrophe on an unprecedented scale”.
“We’re at war, but also, we will win the war,” said Xavier Guille, a local vinyard owner who was helping firefighters battle the blaze. Guille lost woodland to the fire but his vineyard was unharmed.
“My in-laws lost their home in Saint-Laurent-de-la-Cabrerisse, it was one of the first homes that burned,” he added.
