Forest fire breaks out again in France's Landes province, burning 1,600 hectares and evacuating 650 people

(Central News Agency reporter Zeng Yize, Paris, 15th) Temperatures rose again in many places in France this week, exceeding 40 degrees Celsius in some areas. At the same time, forest fires broke out again in the southwestern Landes province, burning an area of ​​1,600 hectares so far, and 650 people have been evacuated.

Landes provincial authorities stated that the fire started burning on the 13th of this month and intensified as of early this morning. 550 firefighters were on site to put out the fire.

French news channel (franceinfo) reported that Gilles Clavreul, the head of the Landes department, said that due to the situation, a new wave of evacuation operations must be launched, involving hundreds of people, totaling 650 people, but no houses have been damaged so far.

He also said that in case a spark crosses the isolation zone and ignites a new fire, the two areas may need to be evacuated, and he has requested air support from helicopters and fire-fighting aircraft.

Arnaud Fabre, head of the Landes provincial fire rescue unit, said that the fire situation had initially improved, but it began to intensify around 4:30 a.m., and it was difficult for fire-extinguishing equipment to enter the fire area, so a large number of firefighters had to be dispatched to try to control the fire.

This is the third wave of major fires in Landes this season. The forests in the Landes de Gascogne region are mostly coastal pine trees, which have recently dried up due to successive heat waves and become more flammable.

About three weeks ago, the Biscarrosse fire in Landes department burned 3,700 hectares, highlighting the fire risk of the vast forests in the area. Farther north, the "super large fire" that broke out in the Gironde province in late July burned more than 40,000 hectares.

Data from the European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS) shows that forest fires burned nearly 100,000 hectares in France in 2026, breaking the satellite monitoring record in the past 20 years.

The heat wave in France this week reached its peak on the 13th and 14th and began to gradually cool down today, but the heat in the southeast is expected to last until at least the 17th. (Editor: Chen Huiping) 1150815