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Paris [France], August 1 (ANI/WAM): French Interior Minister Laurent Nunez announced today that the largest forest fire in France since 1949 has been brought under control, more than a week after it broke out in a pine forest near the city of Bordeaux in southwestern France.
Minister Nunez said the fire was under control and no longer spreading, explaining that it was still burning in some areas. France has been experiencing forest fires for weeks following a series of heat waves that have led to the drying up of riverbeds and vegetation. These extreme weather phenomena are attributed by scientists to climate change resulting from human activities. These fires in the Gironde region near Bordeaux consumed 42,000 hectares of pine forests along the Atlantic coast, destroyed about 240 homes, and 220,000 people were evacuated, most of whom returned to their homes after the fires were brought under control. According to data from satellites belonging to the European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS), the total area of land burned in France this year to date is 92,000 hectares, the highest figure France has ever seen in the past twenty years. (ANI/WAM)
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