France puts out largest wildfire since 1949

BORDEAUX – A wildfire that scorched 42,000 hectares in south-west France has finally been declared extinguished, two months after the country’s largest blaze since 1949 broke out, authorities said on Sept 28.

The fire erupted in July near the village of Saumos in the Gironde region and forced the evacuation of around 224,000 people as it threatened both the tourist peninsula of Cap-Ferret and the outskirts of Bordeaux.

“The Saumos forest fire, which burnt 42,000 hectares this summer, including 37,296 ha destroyed, is now extinguished,” state services wrote in a statement, adding no deaths had been reported.

The blaze was put under control on Aug 1, but continued to smoulder underground for weeks before it was finally declared as extinguished.

More than 3,300 firefighters took part in the operation, which officials described as the largest firefighting effort in modern French civil security history.

The blaze was the largest recorded in France since a 1949 wildfire in the same region that burnt about 50,000 hectares.

France has seen around 98,000 ha destroyed by wildfires in 2026, the highest level since 1976, according to provisional figures. AFP