France declares Gironde megafire extinguished after 69 days
France has declared the massive wildfire in Gironde extinguished after burning for 69 days in the southwest of the country. The fire began in July near the village of Saumos and spread across a wide area of forest land before being brought under control on 1 August. Authorities said the blaze is now out after continuing to smoulder underground for weeks.
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State services said the Saumos forest fire burned 42,000 hectares this summer, including 37,296 hectares that were destroyed. They also said no deaths were reported. The fire forced the evacuation of around 224,000 people and sent a thick plume of smoke over Bordeaux, while also threatening the Cap-Ferret peninsula and the outskirts of the city.
More than 3,300 firefighters were involved in the response, which officials described as the largest firefighting effort in modern French civil security history. The scale of the deployment underlines how difficult the operation was, even after the flames were brought under control. The prolonged smouldering phase meant the emergency did not end when the fire line was first contained.
The blaze was the largest wildfire in France since 1949, when a fire in the same region burned about 50,000 hectares. It also comes against the backdrop of a difficult wildfire year for the country, with provisional figures showing around 98,000 hectares destroyed so far, the highest level since 1976. That places the Gironde fire within a broader pattern of severe summer fire risk in France.
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Gironde has been one of the most closely watched fire zones in recent French history because of the combination of forested land, nearby population centres and tourism areas. The evacuation figure and the smoke over Bordeaux showed how quickly a rural fire can become a regional emergency. The incident also highlighted the strain on civil protection services when a fire remains active below the surface long after the main front has passed.
What remains unclear from the latest statement is whether any further monitoring or recovery work will continue in the affected area. Authorities have not indicated any deaths, but the full cost of the damage and the longer-term impact on land and local communities has not been detailed. The key question now is how quickly the region can move from emergency response to recovery after one of the country's largest recorded wildfires.
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