After weeks of underground hot spots, France's largest wildfire since 1949 has been extinguished. Even after firefighters brought the blaze under control, it continued burning beneath the surface for weeks.
Here's what to know
According to AFP, around 224,000 people were evacuated after a wildfire broke out in July outside Saumos, in the Gironde region, and pushed toward both the tourist peninsula of Cap-Ferret and the outskirts of Bordeaux. By the time state services said in a statement that it was finally out, the blaze had scorched 42,000 hectares (roughly 104,000 acres).
No deaths were reported, but authorities did not immediately declare the danger over. Although the fire was contained Aug. 1, it continued to smolder underground for weeks.
The response involved more than 3,300 firefighters, and officials said no previous firefighting mission in France's modern civil security era had been larger.
France had not recorded a wildfire this large since another blaze in the same region in 1949, when roughly 50,000 hectares (roughly 124,000 acres) burned.
Across France, about 98,000 hectares (roughly 242,000 acres) have burned this year, the country's highest total since 1976.
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What's being done?
Authorities ordered large-scale evacuations and deployed thousands of firefighters as the blaze moved toward busy, populated areas.
"The Saumos forest fire, which burned 42,000 hectares this summer, including 37,296 hectares destroyed, is now extinguished," state services wrote in a statement.
Where can I learn more?
These stories add context on the wildfire conditions and fire behavior behind disasters like the Saumos blaze. They cover another major fire in France, why some fires keep burning overnight, and how wildfire weather and carbon pollution are changing as blazes grow larger.
• In southern France, firefighters battled a wildfire the size of Paris across the Corbières Massif.
• In drought-hit regions, wildfires continue through the night, overturning long-held firefighting assumptions.
• Scientists found some megafires are creating their own fire weather, making containment even harder.
• Around the world, weather conditions that fuel wildfires are becoming more frequent and intense.
• Globally, forest blazes are producing far-reaching carbon pollution impacts that complicate climate goals.
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