by Saint-Laurent-de-La-Cabrisse, France (Reuters) Firefighters fought for a third day on Thursday to contain the largest natural fire in France in almost eight decades, which burned more than 16,000 hectares, killed one person and destroyed dozens of houses.
Reuters TV images showed plumes of smoking that came across the forest area in the Aude region in South France.
Drone images showed large steel -charred vegetation.
One person died, three lack and two people, including a firefighter, are in critical condition, the local authorities said.
“From now on the fire was not brought under control,” Christophe Magny, one of the officials who leads the fire control operation, told BFM TV. He added that he hoped that the fire could be taken later in the day.
The fire, about 100 km from the border with Spain, not far from the Mediterranean Sea, started on Tuesday and quickly spread.
It has wiped through an area one and a half times larger than Paris. Civil servants have said that it has been the largest natural fire in France since 1949.
The fire is now progressing slower, Minister of Environment Agnes Pannier-Runacher told France Info Radio.
Scientists say that the hotter, drier summers of the Mediterranean region have a high risk of forest fires.
France’s Weather Office has warned about a new heat wave that starts on Friday in other parts of South France and because of the past days.
(Reporting by Manon Cruz and Sudip Kar-Gupta; Writing by Ingrid Melander; Processing by Andrew Cawthorne)
