Paris, August 1 (QNA) – French Interior Minister, Laurent Nunez announced on Saturday that the largest wildfire in France since 1949 has been brought under control, more than a week after it broke out in a pine forest near Bordeaux in the southwest of the country.

Nunez stated that “the fire is under control and is no longer spreading,” explaining that it is still burning in some areas.

France has been battling forest fires for weeks following a series of heat waves that have dried up riverbeds and vegetation, climatic phenomena that scientists attribute to climate change caused by human activity.

In the Gironde region near Bordeaux, a massive fire consumed 42,000 hectares of pine forest along the Atlantic coast and destroyed approximately 240 homes.

Local authorities confirmed that the region is “recovering” after more than a week of using firefighting aircraft to support firefighters and volunteers working tirelessly to extinguish the blaze. They added that most of the 220,000 people who were evacuated have returned to their homes.

In the Var region of southeastern France, firefighters managed to contain a massive fire that broke out on Friday.

According to satellite data from the European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS), the total area of ​​land burned in France this year has reached 92,000 hectares to date, the highest figure recorded in the country in the past 20 years. (QNA)