France\u2019s vast wildfire near Bordeaux, which scorched an area four times the size of Paris and forced 224,000 people to evacuate, remained contained on Sunday, but was still burning. <\/p>\n
Hundreds of kilometres away, a newer blaze in Provence had stopped advancing overnight but was not yet contained.<\/p>\n
About 3,000 firefighters remained deployed across the two fronts, extinguishing hot spots, cutting firebreaks and securing areas of burned forest as high temperatures and wind threatened to breathe new life into the blaze.<\/p>\n
The fire in the Gironde region burned about 420 square kilometres in just 10 days before authorities declared its advance stopped over the weekend.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe fire is now fixed, which does not mean that the fire is extinguished,\u201d the Gironde prefecture said on Sunday, using the French firefighting term for a blaze that has been contained within its perimeter.<\/p>\n
A firefighting helicopter releases water over a wildfire near Correns, southeastern France. Credit: AP<\/p>\n
The region remained under France\u2019s highest red forest-fire alert. Dry conditions and soaring temperatures in Bordeaux, along with afternoon winds, risked rekindling flames.<\/p>\n
Additional firefighters from Ukraine, Lithuania and French Polynesia were expected on Sunday and Monday to reinforce the operation.<\/p>\n
Human-caused climate change doubled the chances of extreme fire conditions for the flames in France, scientists at World Weather Attribution calculated in a rapid analysis on Thursday, conducted while fires were still burning.<\/p>\n
Europe is the world\u2019s fastest-warming continent, with temperatures increasing at twice the speed as the global average since the 1980s, according to the European Union\u2019s Copernicus Climate Change Service.<\/p>\n
An aerial view of a homes burned by wildfires in Le Porge, southwestern France. Credit: AP<\/p>\n
The Gironde blaze prompted one of the largest peacetime evacuations in modern French history. Many thousands of people remained displaced or unable to reach their homes.<\/p>\n
Nearly 1,500 firefighters were battling a separate fire that tore through roughly 18 square kilometres in little more than a day.<\/p>\n
Authorities said the blaze in the Gros Bessillon hills was stabilised by Sunday morning, meaning its perimeter had not expanded overnight. But unlike the Gironde fire, it had not yet been declared contained.<\/p>\n
Firefighting aircraft supported crews working to keep the flames away from villages set among the vineyards, olive groves and wooded hills of the region known as Green Provence.<\/p>\n