Massive French wildfire now contained, 16,000 hectares affected, local authorities say

By Marco Trujillo

SAINT-LAURENT-DE-LA-CABRERISSE, France (Reuters) -fA massive wildfire that has scorched through 16,000 hectares (39,537 acres) of forest and villages in southern France since Tuesday has now been contained, local authorities said on Thursday.

Firefighters will remain deployed in the area in the coming days to secure the site and prevent flare-ups, they added in a statement.

Residents affected by the blaze are still barred from returning to their homes without official clearance, as many roads remain closed and potentially hazardous due to uninspected damage and fallen power lines.

France's biggest wildfire in nearly eight decades has killed a woman whom officials said had disregarded evacuation orders, made 18 injuries, including 16 firefighters. The blaze destroyed 36 houses, damaged 20 others, and forced some 2,000 residents and holidaymakers to flee the area.

At the height of the crisis, approximately 5,000 households lost power, and as of Thursday evening, around 1,500 homes were still without electricity, local authorities said.

"We don't have water, internet and electricity anymore. We have nothing. It's the apocalypse," said resident and farmer Alain Reneau, who lives in Saint-Laurent-de-la-Cabrerisse, a village hit hard by the fire.

"We saved the house, but we had to fight the whole night, for two days."

Plumes of smoke rose over the forest area in the Aude region. Drone footage showed swathes of charred earth after the fire swept across an area one-and-a-half times the size of Paris.

The blaze, not far from the border with Spain and the Mediterranean Sea, has spread unusually rapidly, fanned by strong winds and very dry vegetation, following months of drought in the area.

"The fire's progression is slowing down, but we are still dealing with an active fire," the region's deputy prefect, Remi Recio, told reporters.

"Compared to yesterday, the progression has significantly decreased because the weather conditions have changed, notably the wind direction," Le Monde newspaper quoted Recio as saying.

Close to 2,000 firefighters were on the ground to fight any flare-ups. The territory the wildfire has gone through around 16,000 hectares, local authorities said in their last update on Thursday evening, while French media reported the affected area to be around 17,000 hectares (40,000 acres).

"The battle isn't over yet, the fire could reignite with greater force," Prefect Christian Pouget said earlier.

'CONSEQUENCE OF CLIMATE CHANGE'

Environment Minister Agnes Pannier-Runacher said the fire was the biggest one France has experienced since 1949. "This is a wildfire that is a consequence of climate change, of drought in this region," she told France Info radio.

An investigation is under way to identify the cause of the blaze.

"Never in my life (have I seen) fires like this," 77-year-old retiree Simon Gomez said in Saint-Laurent-de-la-Cabrerisse.

Scientists say the Mediterranean region's hotter, drier summers put it at high risk of wildfires.

France's weather office has warned of a new heatwave starting in other parts of southern France on Friday and due to last several days.

Local winemakers and mayors are also blaming the loss of vineyards for the fire's rapid spread.

"We're at war, but also, we will win the war," said Xavier Guille, a local vinyard owner who was helping firefighters battle the blaze.

Guille lost woodland to the fire but his vineyard was unharmed. "My in-laws lost their home in Saint-Laurent-de-la-Cabrerisse, it was one of the first homes that burned."

(Reporting by Manon Cruz, Abdul Saboor, Horaci Garcia, Marco Trujillo, additional reporting by Sudip Kar-Gupta, Zhifan Liu, Charlotte Van Campenhout; Writing by Ingrid Melander; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne, Alison Williams, Gareth Jones and Sandra Maler)