France’s biggest wildfire in nearly 50 years has scorched an area larger than Paris in the southern department of Aude, leaving a woman dead and forcing thousands of residents to flee.
About 2,000 firefighters tackled the blaze with the help of water-bombing aircraft, but officials said it was still out of control and spreading fast on Wednesday evening.
Jacques Piraux, the mayor of Jonquières, said that 80 per cent of his village was burnt. “It looks like a lunar landscape. It’s hellish,” he said.
The village and several campsites were evacuated.
François Bayrou, the prime minister, said: “It’s a catastrophe of an unprecedented scale”
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François Bayrou, the prime minister, who visited the scene with Bruno Retailleau, the interior minister, said: “It’s a catastrophe of an unprecedented scale. This is a time when climate change is causing events the likes of which we’ve never seen before.”
Aude has suffered a drought this month and lack of rainfall in previous months “played a major role in spreading the fire as vegetation is very dry,” the environment ministry said in a statement. “It is the biggest wildfire since 1976.”
The region has also become more vulnerable due to rising temperatures and the removal of vineyards that once served as fire breaks, officials said.
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Retailleau said soldiers would be deployed to help firefighters battle the flames.
The fire broke out on Tuesday afternoon and devastated 15,000 hectares (more than 37,000 acres) in just over 24 hours. On Wednesday evening it was spreading at an exceptionally rapid rate of 6km (3.6 miles) an hour, with the flames fanned by winds of up to 36 mph, the fire brigade said.
Serge Zaka, a climate scientist, said: “We’ve never seen a fire spread so fast this century.”
Water-bombing aircraft are being used to try to control the fire
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Huge fires that ravaged parts of southern France in 2022 “were very destructive but they developed much more slowly,” he said.
A 65-year-old woman died after refusing to leave her home in the village of Saint-Laurent-de-la-Cabrerisse, according to Xavier de Volontat, the mayor. “Police and a local councillor went to all houses to evacuate the two areas that were threatened by the fire on Tuesday afternoon, but she would not leave,” he said.
Two more residents were injured, one of whom suffered life-threatening burns. Three firefighters were also hurt.
The cause of the fire is still unknown.
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A winegrower quoted on French TV who gave his name as Gilles said his niece’s farm near Saint-Laurent-de-la-Cabrerisse was destroyed. “I tried to help her save her hens, rabbits and pigs, but she lost everything,” he said. “There was a wall of flame coming at us that must have been three or four kilometres wide.”
Lucie Roesch, secretary-general of the Aude prefecture, said: “The fire is spreading and all conditions are favourable for it to continue advancing. It has not yet been brought under control.”
A wildfire that reached the edge of Marseille, France’s second-largest city, last month injured about 300 people.
Southern Europe has been hit by a series of large fires this summer.