{"id":88721,"date":"2025-08-08T03:53:00","date_gmt":"2025-08-08T03:53:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=88721"},"modified":"2025-08-08T03:53:00","modified_gmt":"2025-08-08T03:53:00","slug":"france-still-battling-largest-wildfire-in-75-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=88721","title":{"rendered":"France still battling largest wildfire in 75 years"},"content":{"rendered":"
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France\u2019s largest wildfire for 75 years, which has burned through an area larger than Paris, has slowed overnight but is not yet under control, officials have said.<\/p>\n

More than 2,000 firefighters and 500 firefighting vehicles continue to be deployed to the Aude region, alongside gendarmerie and army personnel, officials said on Thursday.<\/p>\n

A woman has died and 13 people, including 11 firefighters, have been injured, with two in a critical condition, since the fire broke out near the village of Ribaute in southern France on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Three people have also been reported missing by their relatives, and dozens of homes have been destroyed, the\u00a0Aude prefecture added.<\/p>\n

Christophe Magny, one of the officials leading the firefighting operation, told local media outlet France Info on Thursday that firefighters hoped to contain the wildfire later in the day.<\/p>\n

Images overnight showed firefighters tackling the 16,000-hectare (62sq miles) blaze, which officials said had lost intensity since Wednesday due to wind and lower temperatures.<\/p>\n

Water-bombing aircraft have also helped tackle the flames.<\/p>\n

A combined 130 water drops were made on Wednesday by helicopters and planes in a bid to douse flames<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Residents have been urged not to return home while operations continue, with 17 temporary accommodation sites opened up.<\/p>\n

Villages in the Corbieres region remain on high alert, according to French media.<\/p>\n

Officials say the wildfire is the largest in France since 1949, with French Prime Minister Fran\u00e7ois Bayrou calling it a \u201ccatastrophe on an unprecedented scale\u201d.<\/p>\n

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During a visit to the Aude region on Wednesday, Bayrou said the fire was connected to global warming and drought.<\/p>\n

Environment Minister Agnes Pannier-Runacher also linked the blaze to climate change.<\/p>\n

Officials said on Wednesday that the fire\u2019s quick advance was driven by strong winds, dry vegetation and hot summer weather.<\/p>\n

Jacques Piraud, mayor of the village of Jonqui\u00e8res, where several houses burned down, told Le Monde that around 80% of the village was burned.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s dramatic. It\u2019s black, the trees are completely charred,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

French President Emmanuel Macron said yesterday that \u201call of the nation\u2019s resources are mobilised,\u201d and called on people to exercise \u201cthe utmost caution\u201d.<\/p>\n

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\"FranceFrance’s largest wildfire for 75 years, which has burned through an area larger than Paris, has slowed overnight but is not yet under control, officials have said.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_2277560469115098_106292521332774":"","twitter_aToxNzczMzI3Njk4OTg4ODUxMjAxOw==_1773327698988851200":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2082,1910,10,9,6114],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-88721","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-france","category-international","category-politics","category-popular","category-wildfire"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88721","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=88721"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88721\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=88721"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=88721"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=88721"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}