Over 2,000 French firefighters are battling to contain the country’s largest wildfire since 1949, burning in the southern region of Aude [1], [2]. French Prime Minister François Bayrou called the fire—which broke out on Tuesday and is expected to continue for days—a “catastrophe on an unprecedented scale,” linking it to global warming and prolonged drought conditions.
The blaze has already claimed the life of an elderly woman in a village 30 kilometers outside Perpignan. At least one person is still missing, 13 have been injured, and more than 25 homes have been destroyed. Around 2,500 households are without power. The worst-hit villages include Lagrasse, Fabrezan, Tournissan, Coustouge, and Saint-Laurent-de-la-Cabrerisse.
At the same time, Spain is also suffering under extreme heat (reaching up to 43°C) triggering new wildfires and flare-ups across the country.
The fire in Aude is spreading rapidly at 5.5 kilometers per hour, fueled by strong winds, dry vegetation, and soaring temperatures. Residents and tourists are evacuating the area, where an estimated 15,000 hectares have already burned, an area larger than the city of Paris. To put that into perspective, this single fire has scorched as much land as the 9,000 wildfires recorded across recent summers combined.
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