France's largest wildfire in decades now 'under control', interior minister says

France's largest wildfire since 1949 has been brought under control, Interior Minister Laurent Nunez said, more than a week since the fire erupted in the Gironde department near the southwestern city of Bordeaux.

"The fire in under control, it's no longer progressing," Nunez said, adding that there were still active fires in some areas.

Firefighters on Saturday had managed to stem the advance of a new fast-moving blaze in the southeast of France.

France has for weeks been battling wildfires after a series of deadly heatwaves that have dried up riverbeds and vegetation, in extreme weather events scientists have linked to human-made climate change.

Strong winds fanned flames in the southeastern Var region on Friday, leading to them raging though 1,000 hectares in just several hours in what the regional prefect Simon Babre described as flames moving "faster than a galloping horse".

But on Saturday morning he reported no new progression.

"No new areas have been impacted," Babre said.
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The fire was just the latest of several that have consumed 5,600 hectares (138,000 acres) of land in total in the region in July, one of which caused Hollywood star George Clooney, his wife Amal and children to flee their home earlier this week.

In the southwest of the country, France's largest wildfire since 1949 remained contained more than a week after it erupted.

The inferno ripped through 42,000 hectares – an area larger than the US city of Detroit – of pine forest and destroyed around 240 homes along the Atlantic coastline near the winemaking capital of Bordeaux.

Inhabitants allege a brushwood-clearing machine accidentally started the blaze with a spark on Wednesday last week.

"The fire is still not under control," said regional firefighting official Eric Pitault on Saturday morning.

"We are working to get it under control in the coming days," he said, adding his teams were especially monitoring the edges of the forest.

Sophie Brocas, the prefect of the southwestern Gironde region, said on Friday evening that the region was "coming up for air" after more than a week of water-bombing aircraft supporting firefighters and volunteers relentlessly battling the wildfire.

Most of the 220,000 people who had been evacuated from the flames had gone home.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP)