PARIS (AP) — France’s biggest wildfire this summer was spreading quickly Wednesday in a Mediterranean region near the Spanish border after leaving one person dead, authorities said.
About 2,000 firefighters and several water bomber aircraft battled the blaze that broke out Tuesday afternoon in the village of Ribaute in the Aude region, a rural, wooded area that is home to wineries.
The wildfire remained ‘’very active'' on Wednesday and weather conditions were unfavorable, the local administration said in a statement.
One person died in their home, nine others were injured, including seven firefighters, and at least one person was missing, the statement said.
The interior ministry said the fire had spread over 13,000 hectares (32,000 acres), an area larger than the French capital.
Jacques Piraux, mayor of the village of Jonquières, said all residents have been evacuated.
“It’s a scene of sadness and desolation," he told broadcaster BFM TV after he visited Wednesday morning to assess the damage. “It looks like a lunar landscape, everything is burned. More than half or three-quarters of the village has burned down. It’s hellish.”
Residents and tourists in nearby areas were requested to remain in their homes unless told to evacuate by firefighters. Two campsites were evacuated as a precaution.
French Prime Minister François Bayrou was expected to visit Wednesday afternoon, his office said.
Last month, a wildfire that reached the southern port of Marseille, France’s second-largest city, left around 300 people injured.
Southern Europe has seen multiple large fires this summer. Scientists warn that climate change is exacerbating the frequency and intensity of heat and dryness, making the region more vulnerable to wildfires.
Europe is the world’s fastest-warming continent, with temperatures increasing at twice the speed of the global average since the 1980s, according to the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service.
Sylvie Corbet, The Associated Press
